I Wasn't Prepared
by musicxisxlovex3
Summary: What is love? Hermione unknowingly finds the answer to this question when she is sent back in time. But as she faces the question that has puzzeled many, she suddenly finds herself falling in love. Will fate allow her to stay? RL/HG;SB/HG
1. Complicated

**A/N: J.K. Rowling's characters absolutely do not belong to me, although I would love to have Sirius and Remus. Oh, and well, I hope you enjoy this. I recall writing this back in 2006 and thought it was decent. Boy was I wrong. I've been editing this for the past week trying to make it sound decent, but this was the best I could do. I guarantee that the following chapters will be better... hopefully.  
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****Chapter 1 - Complicated**

"Now, Ronald, dear, this is your last year at Hogwarts, so please don't cause too much trouble?" the troubled voice of a mother fought over the loud noises of many other worried parents at the boarding station of Platform 9 3/4.

"Mum," a red-haired teenager groaned, "you're embarrassing me."

"Cheer up, mate. She doesn't want her ickle Ronnikens to get in trouble that's all," Fred Weasely teased.

"Now now, Fred, I'm sure Ron can fend for himself since he's got himself that Prefect badge from last year!" Fred's twin, George said in a mock-serious tone.

Nearby, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny started to laugh hysterically. Although it was Hermione who first become more composed and responded with a sigh, "Boys will be boys."

"Oh come on, 'Mione, you know that inside of their rather non-serious exterior, that they are really good at heart," Harry said while reaching over to his friend and placing his hands on her shoulder.

Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed inwardly while muttering something that nobody could really catch except for a few words that included 'boys' and 'immature'. Whatever it was, it still made Harry smile like a madman. Ginny on the other hand, who was standing next to Hermione couldn't help but laugh at what Harry had said about the twins.

Mrs. Weasely sniffled and gave her son a big hug. Ron had a tortured expression on his face which made his friends double over with laughter once more.

"Mum, we seriously need to go and get inside of the train! There won't be any more compartments left." Ron complained while trying to pry his arms out from his mother's grasp.

Molly Weasely finally let go of her resisting son, and watched tearfully while Ron, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione left for the train.

While walking onto the train, Ginny started to tease her brother.

"Aren't you little mummy's boy."

"Shut up, Gin," Ron replied while growing red in the face.

"You are so temperamental," Ginny huffed.

As the two red heads started to bicker, Hermione and Harry began conversing on their own.

"Why do you always carry around that _sack_ or whatever it is around with you all the time?" Harry asked while looking at the beaded shoulder bag that Hermione carried with her everywhere lately.

"Because, I can keep my wand, money, and possibly books. And it's a purse, Harry," Hermione curtly responded.

There were a few minutes of silence, until Harry suddenly asked.

"Have you ever wondered what it would've been like in the Marauder's times, Hermione?"

Hermione was startled at the question; Harry usually couldn't, well wouldn't, talk about the Marauders after Sirius passed away. She quickly recovered and answered, "Well, it might depend. Didn't they always pull pranks on each other and to everyone in the school? Also, they got into loads of trouble."

The Gryffindor boy stopped walking and looked at her skeptically, "Hermione, you know _we've_ been in trouble just as much as they have."

He got her there. She didn't know what else to say to him, so she started to walking without waiting for Harry to catch up.

"Hermione, wait up."

Hermione didn't turn around, but did stop. Once he caught up with her, she continued to walk at a steady pace, but a few feet away from their still bickering red-haired friends.

"Does it make you uncomfortable that I'm talking about them?" Harry asked, bringing the subject back up again.

"N-no," Hermione hesitantly replied.

Harry didn't say anything else, so they walked in complete silence.

"Harry I-"

Hermione was interrupted by a loud noise in front of them.

Harry and Hermione bolted towards the scene with their wands secured in their hands. Just a few feet away, Draco Malfoy and his Slytherin goons had surrounded Ron and Ginny. As soon as Draco and the Slytherins saw the two Gryffindors, they immediately casted spells at Harry and Hermione.

Harry quickly deflected spells but just as Hermione started to cast her spell, she tripped over a wrinkle in the carpet. However, while she was falling, Hermione's wand penetrated through something above her head.

The Gryffindor landed with a loud thump on the red carpeted train.

"Oh Merlin, this is going to embarrassing," Hermione thought out loud to herself while slowly trying to get up.

"Hey! Are you okay there?!" a voice called only a few feet in front of her.

Once she finally got up, she asked dumbfounded, "What?"

She couldn't exactly see anything clearly because a few black spots impaired her vision for a few seconds. It was when she felt a hand on her shoulder that her eye-sight slowly came back. Hermione made sure that she still had her bag and then quickly pointed her wand at the unknown stranger.

"Woah, calm down," another voice responded to Hermione's aggressive action.

_"Wait, that voice sounds familiar,"_ Hermione thought inside her head.

Hermione cautiously looked up to find a shaggy, ebony haired boy with steel grey eyes in front of her while his four friends stood behind him.

"No, it can't be," Hermione whispered to herself silently.

"Sirius, do you think she's all right?" a red-haired girl asked while coming towards Hermione and the boy.

"I'm not sure Lily, it looks like she just saw a spook or something," Sirius replied while helping the girl up.

Hermione quickly looked back and forth from Lily to Sirius and collapsed.

Sirius's quick reflexes kicked in and caught her smoothly before she even touched the ground.

"Look what you've done Padfoot! You scared her!" a messy haired teenager teased.

"Well this _face_ has won the hearts of nearly all the girls in school, James. It's quite possible for her to be alarmed by my charming looks."

"So much so that she fainted? I believe it seem this girl has a complete opposite reaction towards your face," another boy with sandy colored hair and bright amber-gold eyes said.

"Now, now Remus, do be nice," Sirius growled.

Remus and James exchanged a smirk while Lily rolled her eyes. Sirius started to carry Hermione towards the empty compartment, followed behind by Lily, James and Remus.

A stuttering boy made them stop, "Y-y-you guys, we shouldn't bring her in! We don't even know her!"

"Peter, she's wearing a Hogwart's uniform, and it obviously has a Gryffindor crest on it," Lily pointed out to the girl who was unconsciously draped across Sirius. "I'm pretty sure she's not some crazy serial killer."

"I guess..."

In the train compartments, James, Lily and Peter sat on one side, while Sirius, Hermione and Remus sat on the other.

Lily asked in a concerned voice, "Don't you think she might be a little worried when she wakes up? I mean, she doesn't even know any of us."

"Better than leaving her out there, wouldn't you think?" Remus replied. "Besides, she looks new."

"And cute," Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at his friend.

"Padfoot," Remus said in a warning parental tone. "Give her a chance to breath, hm?"

Sirius, who currently had his arms around unconscious Hermione, raised them up.

"I was just kidding... not really."

"You are so immature, Sirius," Lily said while rolling her eyes.

"Immature? That's real clever, Lils. I can't say that I haven't heard that one before."

James immediately wrapped his arms around her to prevent his girlfriend from flying at Sirius.

When Hermione moaned and started to get up slowly, everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the girl.

"Ouch," Hermione responded when she lifted her head up from somebody's shoulder that she couldn't exactly identify at the moment.

"Ouch is correct. You tripped, fell—and might I add—on your head and then you fainted," Sirius commented jokingly.

Hermione suddenly froze.

She thought to herself, _"Hermione, this is a dream. You either have a serious concussion or you are mentally unstable."_

Hermione started to get up from the red train seats, but both Sirius and Remus grabbed each of her arms simultaneously.

"I think you should sit down for a moment," Remus calmly instructed while gently guiding her down back to her seat.

"And you can rest your head on my shoulder, or if you prefer Remus'," Sirius played around.

The look on Hermione's face was pure shock.

"Or not... Well, anyways, the name is Sirius Black," he introduced himself.

"Remus Lupin," his friend followed after.

James and Sirius exchanged a glance.

"Ow owwwwwoooo!" they both howled, tilting their heads up to the ceiling.

"Hilarious," Remus responded grimly, but there was small smile tugging at his lips.

"Lily Evans, pleasure to meet you."

"P-Peter Pet-Pettigrew."

"James Potter," the messy haired teen said in a smooth and confident manner.

Hermione immediately froze once more.

"_I'm such an idiot. Of course if there is a young Sirius Black, there will be a Remus Lupin, Harry's parents and Peter Pettigrew,"_ Hermione thought. _"Oh... this isn't good at all."_

"I'm thinking she's a fifth or sixth year who's taking quite a fancy on our dear chap, Prongs," Sirius whispered over to Remus, but of course the girl heard since she was right in between them.

"Stop being idiotic," Remus whispered back.

Hermione didn't respond, but had to think for awhile.

_"Oh, wait, where is Ginny? Harry? And Ron?! All I remember is falling down and then seeing all five of them in front of me..." _

All five students had a questioning look on their faces while trying to examine Hermione for any answers.

"What year is it?" Hermione asked in a strained voice.

"Er... 1977," James responded.

_"No, this can't be possible,,"_ Hermione started to think quickly, but the expression on her face gave her away.

"Not to er- barge in on your thoughts, but you seem a little panicky, so I -" Remus slowly started to talk to her but was cut off.

"I need to see Headmaster Dumbledore," Hermione whispered to herself.

"You won't be seeing him until we reach Hogwarts, which is probably thirty minutes away right now," Lily paused, then continued, "Sorry, but I'm not sure who you are, although you are wearing Hogwart's uniform and a Gryffindor crest. Did you recently transfer?"

The other girl wasn't sure how to reply to this. She's supposedly stranded back in 1977 with five people that are supposed to be dead, well, actually only three people. How is she going to explain this situation to them without making herself look like a maniac? Hermione didn't know, but she needed to think up of something really quick.

"My name's Hermione Granger and I just transferred from America," Hermione replied as smoothly as possible.

Remus narrowed his eyes and commented, "You sound like a born and raised Brit from England too me."

"I lived in England until I was eight, but then my parents decided to move to America," Hermione cleverly covered up.

_"Bravo Hermione, you just lied to your future professor," _Hermione thought.

"Right," Remus responded, not believing one thing that came out of her mouth.

"Come off it, Moony," muttered James, although he was still curious about this Hermione girl. The way she acted around him was a little queer, it seemed as if she knew him before, but he hasn't seen her ever in his life before.

"Well what year are you transferring to? I hope you're in seventh, being stuck with these boys are too much to handle at times. They don't understand the complexity of a woman," Lily explained while getting an odd look from her boyfriend, James.

When the red head noticed that James was giving her a look, as were the rest of the boys, she sighed and rolled her eyes, then added, "See what I mean?"

Hermione couldn't help but laugh and nod her head. Before she could even think about her answer, she went on, "My two friends, Harry and Ron, can't seem to understand me either, but after six years, you sort of get used to it."

Remus immediately turned sideways to face Hermione, and then said, "I'm sorry, but if you just transferred here then why do you already have a Gryffindor crest? Usually newcomers are sorted to their Houses on the first day of school."

_"Nothing gets past Remus Lupin," _Hermione laughed inside.

"I came to Hogwarts over the summer to find out which House I belonged to," Hermione quickly replied.

Remus Lupin was tempted to ask her a few other questions but decided against it. She was new after all. No need to scare her off.

"Well," Sirius coughed, "now that we have everything settled down pat, I will have to excuse myself to receive a well earned detention."

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked completely flabbergasted.

"Now, Padfoot, trying to get a head start are we?" James exclaimed.

Sirius acted as if he was being falsely accused, "Me? You should know me better Prongs! I wouldn't try anything unless you were there with me."

"Just because I'm the only sensible one here besides Lily doesn't mean I don't want to join either, you know," Remus commented.

"Prongs, Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot shall strike again ... _tonight_," Sirius had determined look.

It was when he started to smile slowly that James and Remus started to laugh really loudly.

"Pardon the interruption, but what's the deal with the names and getting detention business?" Hermione asked even though she was fully aware about the nicknames and the mischief that the Marauders always get into.

"I was beginning to wonder when you were going to ask us that," James happily replied, and continued, "I'm Prongs, Sirius is Padfoot, Remus is Moony, and Peter is Wormtail."

"Clever nicknames, do they mean anything?" Hermione interrogated.

"Somewhat," Sirius tried concealing a smile and to glance towards Remus.

"Well then why you three would want detentions?"

"It's a tradition that goes back long before you were here," Sirius started out, then paused for James to begin.

"Six years ago, after the fateful day of all meeting each other, we decided to pledge that we were to have as many pranks pulled as possible," James finished his part.

"And it still goes on today. With Peter in last place, he has a total of 50 pranks, although we thought of most of them," Remus paused when he heard Hermione gasp.

He continued with a smile, "With a tie, both James and I have a total of 98 pranks. As for our first place, grand total, record-breaking prankster named Sirius Black, has 110. The detentions, well, let's just say you can't count them by your fingers."

Hermione nearly fell over from her seat, but Remus steadied her.

"I'm guessing getting in trouble doesn't exactly faze any of you?" Hermione laughed hesitantly.

"Never," Sirius responded quickly.

"Not really," James told Hermione.

"Sometimes," Remus quietly replied.

"Ah, Moony, Moony, Moony. Haven't we been over this before?" Sirius joked while slapping his hand on Remus' back.

"Enlighten me."

Sirius was about to say something but then decided against it.

About ten minutes later the conversation waned. Lily fell asleep on James' shoulder who smiled like an idiot while Remus and Sirius glanced at each other and laughed slightly.

Hermione smiled fondly at James who was trying to settle himself by placing his head gently on Lily's red hair. She then looked out the window; the faint colors of the setting sun were starting to appear. She couldn't help but start to drift into sleep as well. Her head nodded with the rhythm of the train's motion, and on one rather rough bump, Hermione's head landed on Sirius's shoulder. Sirius was at first startled, but soon placed an arm around the girl.

Remus couldn't help but feel a stab of jealousy towards his grey-eyed friend.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

When the train halted, a loud screeching sound permitted from below the tracks. The sudden stopping of the train woke up Lily, James, Sirius, and Hermione from their short slumber.

Peter was currently trying to finish the last of his summer homework, while Remus was reading a rather large book. He calmly packed it inside his shoulder bag that he had around him twenty-four/seven.

Hermione patted down her hair as a habit, and smiled when she saw Remus placing his book inside the tan shoulder bag that was almost similar to hers.

"What book were you reading?" she asked.

"_Hogwarts, A History,_" Remus replied, then quickly got up from his chair.

His response caused for Hermione to be wary of conversing with him. She decided to keep her distance from him.

Although he was the first to leave the compartment, Remus waited for his friends outside.

"Wonder what his problem is," Sirius commented while wrapping an arm around Hermione once again.

She had felt uncomfortable from Remus, but now that Sirius had his arm around her, she pushed it away politely. Sirius couldn't hide his shocked face; this was the first time a girl had refused to be around him. James kept Lily from laughing out loud, but then, he too had to keep a straight face himself.

The group of teenagers all headed out of the compartment with Peter tagging along behind them rather slowly.

"Oy, Peter! Hurry up, will you?" James bellowed over the loud noise of the excited first years and other students.

When they all managed to move out of the bustling students, the group found Remus standing near an empty carriage waiting for them.

"I'm not sure if there is enough room for all of us... only four to a carriage," Remus informed them grimly.

Lily looked torn between James and Hermione. She really wanted to get to know the new girl better since she was going to be in their house, but then she didn't exactly want to abandon James.

"Er... Hermione and I'll go and find another carriage," Lily decided, then grabbed Hermione's hand and ran back to find an empty or partially empty carriage.

"What was that all about, Moony? We could've made the thing bigger you know," James was peeved.

"I have to tell you guys something," Remus muttered while getting inside the carriage.

"Better be something good," James grumbled.

Meanwhile, Hermione and Lily found an empty carriage to their surprise and quickly sat inside.

"Phew, that was close! I was scared that there wouldn't be any more left," Lily sighed.

The other teenager just smiled but then suddenly asked, "Uh... Lily? Could I ask you something?"

"What's the matter?" Lily's face etched with a sudden maternal compassion.

"Does Pro- ... Remus generally have a problem with new people? Or is he usually shy," Hermione muttered while looking out the window.

"Oh, hm..." Lily paused, "Well, he's generally a really nice guy. Why do you ask?"

"It's nothing," Hermione smiled slightly.

"Whatever it is, don't worry about it. He'll warm up to you sooner or later."

"I just thought that there might have been something that I said that troubled him."

"And why would that bother you so much?" Lily slyly asked.

"Well I," Hermione was about to answer seriously when she realized that the other witch was merely implying something completely else. "Lily it's nothing like that."

"What? I was just asking why it would bother you that Remus Lupin didn't seem interested in you," Lily teased.

"That wasn't even what I asked," Hermione exclaimed.

"It's okay Hermione," Lily winked at the other withc. "No need to hide your feelings."

Hermione sat looking at Lily dumbfounded who merely gave her a brilliant smile.

"Oh, but Sirius Black is bad news," Lily quickly added. "He has a reputation of being a womanizer so if he pulls moves on you just be aware."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hermione sniffed and then quickly changed the subject. "But what is it with you and James?"

"I'll let you off easily this time, Granger, but next time, your toast!" Lily joked.

Then the forest green eyed witch went into intricate detail of every single thing that James had done to finally win her heart.

The previous awkward relationship between the two girls instantly vanished.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

On the other carriage, the boys were listening closely to Remus.

"I know we just met Hermione, but I can't help but feel she's keeping something away from us," Remus stated.

"Moony, like you said, we just met her and she does have the right to keep things to herself," Sirius retorted.

"I'm going to have to agree with Padfoot," James replied.

Peter just shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm serious," Remus affirmed.

"Uh... no, actually _**I'm**_ Sirius," Sirius tried making his friend ease up.

The amber eyed boy smiled slightly, but then asked to his friends, "Do you like her?"

Shockingly, Peter answered first.

"Hermione seemed nice to me, although she was a little distant."

"She doesn't seem to want to talk a lot about her friends back home," James included.

"Well, _I_ think that we shouldn't be examining her and just accept her as she is," Sirius proposed.

Everyone's eyebrows shot up to their hairline, but nevertheless agreed to Sirius's proposition.

"Look, I know you all must think I'm nutters, but she just came from America and she has nobody right now, so be nice," Sirius continued.

Remus bent his head down shamefully, and then muttered, "Sorry."

"Actually, I was pretty suspicious of her answers also. Why don't we just take her to Dumbledore and see what he says, if that might make you feel better," Sirius proclaimed.

He disagreed, "No, I think you're right, I shouldn't be all paranoid about this. She's just someone who I met for the first time."

"Suit yourself," Sirius shrugged.

After a few silent minutes, James bellowed, "I have a plan!"

The three teenagers huddled around their friend, and then listened to the proposed plan.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

When everyone, except for the first years, was settled into their own House by tables, they waited impatiently for the sorting to begin and end.

"Ahh, I need food, now," Sirius whined to James.

"Tell me about it!" James whispered.

Lily and Hermione exchanged a glance and started to laugh silently until the anticipated wizened wizard stepped up to the podium that was centered at the front.

The Headmaster's speech for the school year wasn't atrociously long, and neither was the Sorting Ceremony. In total, there were 25 sorted in to Hufflepuff, 23 Ravenclaw, and 26 for both Slytherin and Gryffindor Houses.

When food magically appeared on the golden platters on the long tables, Sirius and James praised Merlin and began eating as if they hadn't eaten for an extremely long time.

"Do they always eat like that?" Hermione asked Lily.

The red head nearly choked on her food from Hermione's shocked face.

"Sadly, yes," Lily laughed.

Sirius and James stopped eating abruptly, and sighed in content.

"I am bloated!" Sirius moaned.

"Me too, mate, me too," was James's response.

"But, you two just ate like madmen for about five minutes, and now you're done?" Hermione was flabbergasted.

"They eat three servings of food in five minutes... it's what they usually do," Remus explained to the shocked girl.

"I guess that's normal," Hermione said.

Remus smiled in return.

"You'll get used to it," Peter added.

Hermione, startled at Peter's sudden comment, smiled back slightly, then went back to eating her food.

"Now?" Sirius suddenly asked.

"Now," James agreed while giving a knowing glance towards the other two.

The Marauders muttered an incoherent spell under their breath, while their wands were pointed directly towards the Slytherin table. A few seconds passed by when there a huge commotion at far end of the Great Hall disrupted the entire feast.

Hermione, Lily, and the rest of the other students were wondering what had happened, when one very disgruntled male blonde stood up and screamed.

"Whoever did this will pay for it!" the blond screamed in a feminine voice.

The students in the Great Hall tried very hard not to laugh.

"Who is that?" Hermione whispered to Lily.

"That... is Lucius Malfoy!" Lily managed to choke out.

Then a very greasy haired teenager with an abnormally large nose looked over to the Gryffindor Table. When he found the Marauders looking triumphant, he started a tantrum.

"You insufferable brats!" Severus Snape yelled at the boys in the same girlish voice.

"Who?! Us?" James asked in mock amazement.

"Please calm down Mr. Snape," Dumbledore said with a hint of amusement in his voice. "I'm quite sure this will pass."

The unmistakable real voice of Lucius Malfoy was heard from none other than his girlfriend, Narcissa Black.

"Those fucking Gryffindors are going to pay!"

"Ms. Black! Contain yourself immediately!" a severe looking teacher scolded the girl.

"What did you do, James?!" Lily asked while clutching her stomach from laughter.

"In a very short way to say this, all the Slytherin's personalities and voices are switched with the opposite gender," James proudly explained.

"And it'll stay like this for a _week_!" Sirius added with his famous smile that he was known all around school for.

Dumbledore's loud booming voice was suddenly heard over the now laughing crowd.

"I see that some of the students are undergoing through the normal vocal fluctuations. Well, quiet down, quiet down, I'm sure that everything will be perfectly fine in a few days time," the Headmaster tried assuring the Slytherin students.

"Are you kidding me?! It was Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew!" Lucius' girly voice yelled.

"Mr. Malfoy," the same teacher who had scolded Narcissa, warned Lucius.

"All right McGonagall!" Sirius whispered ecstatically while giving his best friends all a high five.

"I'm beginning to think that it's time to go back to our own Houses!" Dumbledore ordered.

There were loud scratching sounds from the wooden benches scraping across the stone floor heard all around the Great Hall. As all of the students were heading towards their houses, an incredibly large group of disgruntled Slytherins were walking towards the Dungeons.

The four boys, Lily and Hermione walked to the Gryffindor Common Room along with the other Gryffindors. Everyone else was situated in their own beds in their dormitories while the six teens were still in front of the fire downstairs.

"Lily, I think I'm going to go see Dumbledore right now," Hermione told her new found friend, and left the Common Room quickly as possible.

"Wait, Hermione!" Lily tried stopping her.

"Wonder what the rush is," Sirius thought aloud.

"James, I'm going to go after Hermione, she probably doesn't even know where Dumbledore's room is," Lily said while running out of the common room.

The witch searched for Hermione in the clearly deserted hallways.

_"Where did she go?"_ Lily thought to herself while running towards the Headmaster's office.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hermione briskly walked towards the familiar gargoyle stone, and to her surprise found the Headmaster standing in front of the gargoyle with a determined look on his face.

"Professor," Hermione tried getting his attention.

Dumbledore turned around and chuckled, "I'm afraid I forgot the password."

Hermione, not sure what to say, just stood there.

"Ah, yes, you look troubled. What is the matter?"

"Well, I-"

"I'm incredibly sorry, but I just remembered the password," Dumbledore grinned at Hermione.

Once the gargoyle stone jumped out of the way to reveal a staircase, the Headmaster beckoned the teen to follow him inside.

As soon as they were both situated in the room, the Headmaster offered the girl a lemon drop but Hermione declined.

When they settled into chairs, Hermione began to tell the Headmaster her problem.

"Professor, I'm not from here, and I don't think I'm supposed to be here either. I'm from the year 1997, not the year 1977!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I don't think I quite understand, Miss..."

"Granger. Hermione Granger."

"Ahh, Miss Granger. Please continue," Dumbledore urged the girl.

"I know for a fact, that in the morning in my time, I went on board the Hogwarts Express. No, I think I need to tell you everything now, so you'll understand," Hermione told the Headmaster.

"Miss Granger, although I would certainly enjoy learning about the future and what it holds, I believe this type of information is too volatile. If you could just tell me how you got here?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well... my friends and I boarded the train to Hogwarts this morning. We were talking while trying to grab an empty compartment, and we came upon the topic of Harry's parents and their friends. I'm still not sure what happened exactly, but there was a huge commotion going on in front of us, so we ran towards the site as fast as we could with our wands out. I tripped over something I'm not quite sure about, and I fell, head first with my wand in hand. After I hit the floor, I looked up and I find myself in front of Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter in the flesh as real as I am right now... in some way," Hermione finally ended.

"Miss Granger, can I please ask what type of wood and core you wand is made out of?" Dumbledore asked her.

"Um... it's made of vine wood with a dragon heartstring core. You don't need to know how long it is, do you?"

"No, no, that is all I needed. Well, Miss Granger, have you ever heard of the term Time Solstice?" the Headmaster had a calm exterior.

"I think I've read about it before," Hermione paused.

"Time solstice occurs only twice a year and will work for only one or two witches or wizards in the entire wizarding world. Those unique people, who actually have the ability to go through time, have a special type of wand, and that type of wand happens to be yours.

The pairing of vine wood and the dragon heartstring combined makes the wand a rare time traveling item," Dumbledore paused; he didn't want to overload the girl's mind with the news.

As suspected, Hermione was at a loss for words. Who would've known that her wand had a rare ability to enable her to travel through time, and only twice a year?

Ollivander might have known, well, he should have known since he specials in this field. But why didn't he ever tell her about this at the time she received her wand when she was a first year at Hogwarts?

Dumbledore must have read her mind or her peculiar expression, because he answered for the question that was running through head.

"I'm sure that you are thinking why the wand maker never told you about your wand, am I correct?"

Hermione just nodded.

He continued, "It is not correct for him to tell you of the mysteries of your wand. You alone are required to figure the secrets out yourself.

"You explained to me before that you were actually going to this school in the future? I see that you are a Gryffindor, but if you could enlighten me on the classes you were planning on taking?"

"I think I should just write them out for you," Hermione tried to hide her embarrassed face.

The Headmaster only smiled when he saw the list of classes that she had signed up for.

"I'll see to it that you have all of your supplies and some money to you by morning," he responded.

"Thank you so much, I-"

Dumbledore suddenly stood up from his chair and looked at his door.

"Miss Granger, I do hope that you would keep this a secret. Try to not reveal too much information on yourself and others, although, I see that Miss Evans already found out about this whole mess."

The Headmaster nearly laughed when he saw the look on Hermione's face. Before she could reply, he explained to her that Lily was right outside the door.

Hermione stumbled while getting up and muttered a soft thank you to the wizard and started to leave the room, but turned around.

"I thought you might like to know, that I had to tell Sirius, Remus, James, and Peter that I transferred from America. I told Lily as well, but you said that she's right outside, so I better try and explain to her," Hermione said.

Dumbledore just nodded his head towards her and bid her goodnight. Hermione left, and opened the door to find a startled Lily with wide eyes backing slowly away from the witch.

"Lily, I-" Hermione started, but was cut off by a very emotional red head.

"Oh, Hermione! I'm so sorry! I can't believe that you couldn't have told me any sooner! I would've tried to understand and oh wow, you're from the future!" Lily exclaimed.

Hermione just smiled faintly, "Yea, er- sorry for lying. I just didn't know what to say. How much did you hear?"

"Practically the whole thing...why do you ask?" Lily curiously asked.

"Well, now I don't have to repeat the entire story again," Hermione let out a breath in relief.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Lily and Hermione walked back to the Gryffindor Common Room in a rather happy mood.

"What are you two grinning like madwomen for?" James raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You seemed to be in a real hurry to go off to Dumbledore's," Sirius added.

Hermione was about to say something, but Lily immediately interjected.

"Sirius Black, it is none of your business wherever Hermione goes," Lily paused then looked at Hermione, "do you want to come upstairs? I have to talk to you about something."

"Um... sure?" Hermione seemed to just get in the conversation.

"Goodnight everyone," Lily briskly told the boys, and then kissed James' cheek while she went up towards the staircases to the girl's dormitories.

The remaining witch uncomfortably stood right in front of them, not knowing what to say.

"Um... 'night," Hermione said and immediately rushed off to follow Lily.

"Well, I'd say she's still scared of that dog face of yours, Pads," Remus joked.

"Not funny, considering someone who loves to howl at the moon every month," Sirius grumbled.

"Do I have to remind you that you join me every single time when I do howl at the lovely moon?" Remus continued to joke around.

Sirius wickedly grinned, "Too bad Prongsie and Wormtail can't. They either baa or squeak!"

"At least I have a more sophisticated look than a furry old mutt!" James refuted.

"Ouch, that really hurt," Sirius replied while placing a hand over his heart and falling down dramatically on the floor, landing with a thump.

"Besides Padfoot, _I'm_ the only one who can actually dodge the Whomping Willow's branches. Last time I checked, when you tried, you failed rather miserably," Peter decided to get in the action.

"Very funny," Sirius muttered while he still was lying on the ground.

Soon after, the four of them all laughed at each other and started to talk about what they had in store for tomorrow.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"What took you so long?" Lily asked while patting the bed that she was currently sitting on, she was obviously waiting for Hermione to jump on.

"Stop exaggerating, I was only saying goodnight to the guys also," Hermione smiled while sitting down next to the red head.

"Did you take a few extra seconds to gaze at Remus?" Lily teased.

Hermione blushed, "I did not."

"Right," Lily giggled. "Well, I think you might want to change into something comfortable. Here, you can borrow my pajamas until we go shopping at Hogsmeade, all right?"

"Thank you so much," Hermione smiled, and quickly started to get in the clothes.

Once they were both settled and Hermione got back on Lily's bed, the witch immediately interrogated her friend.

"But really, do you fancy Remus?" Lily questioned.

The girls next to them suddenly grew interested in what the two were talking about.

"Ooh! Are you talking about Remus? I absolutely adore Sirius!" a girl in braids asked in an excited voice.

"They are soooooo cute!" another girl squealed almost loud enough that the Marauders downstairs probably could've heard.

"Julia, Angie, just go to bed and stay out of people's business!" Lily exasperatedly tried pushing them out of their conversation.

"Ugh... fine," the girl in braids, called Julia, plopped down in her bed.

The other girl followed Julia's lead and went back inside her covers.

Lily mouthed to the Hermione in front of her, "Mental. Both of them."

Hermione just chortled softly, then decided to close the red curtains around them and casted a Silence Charm around them.

"There, now there's privacy for talking," she smiled.

"Good job," Lily said in a mock-impressed voice.

"Ha-ha."

"Well, now back to business!" Lily restated.

Although Lily was incredibly determined to figure out if Hermione was interested in Remus, Hermione felt extremely uncomfortable.

It wasn't a secret between her and Ginny back home that Hermione did actually have a crush on her third-year professor.

"Did you know them from the future?" Lily suddenly asked.

There was a long pause, but then Hermione replied softly, "Lily, as much as I would like to tell you, I'm afraid I can't. Dumbledore stressed that if I told anyone what happens in the future everything would be in shambles."

Lily rubbed Hermione's back in a motherly way, Lily then replied, "It's ok Hermione."

After a few more minutes of trying to talk everything out, Hermione got out of Lily's bed and went into her own.

Hermione couldn't get herself comfortable on the bed but she had to admit that it was the exact same as the ones that she slept back in her present Hogwarts. However, the Marauders and Lily haunted her thoughts.

When she finally heard Lily fall asleep, she quietly walked out of her bed while grabbing her wand for precaution. The girl opened the door cautiously, afraid that the hinges would make a loud creaking sound, but luckily they didn't.

Hermione swiftly walked down to the common room, it was empty since it was nearly one o'clock in the morning.

_"What am I going to do now..."_ Hermione quietly thought out loud.

She walked over to a rather large and plushy looking red armchair and curled herself into it. She transfigured a random piece of parchment into a large red wool blanket. A fire was still burning in the fireplace, so there was no need for bothering with it. Hermione wrapped the blanket around her and placed her head on the red armrest. She gazed deeply into the fireplace.

_"I should study about Time Solstice and learn how the whole thing works and find out how soon I can go back to my time." _

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Remus woke up from his slumber from a very soft sound coming from the common room.

His acute wolf senses followed him when he was in human form which allowed for him to see and hear things more clearly than most. There are some perks to be able to sense things more, but then there are some very rare times when having good senses is a curse.

The teen crawled out of his bed slowly in fear of waking up his friends. He opened the door, not making a sound, and slowly walked down the stairs to the common room.

He found Hermione Granger curled up in his favorite armchair with a thick wool blanket covered around her. She seemed to be sleeping, but when he walked closer, he noticed she was just staring blankly at the fire.

Although he continued to walk towards her, she didn't seem to hear him coming.

Remus coughed and sat in the opposite direction of Hermione. It was then the witch noticed Remus.

"Oh, hello," Hermione whispered, her face now facing the other Gryffindor. "Did I wake you?"

Remus smiled slightly and replied, "No, but what are you doing up so late?"

"Couldn't sleep, what's your excuse?"

"I'm a light sleeper and Sirius was snoring," he lied.

"I'm sorry," Hermione laughed while sitting up.

When she did, the blanket fell down, revealing her in her tank top borrowed from Lily and a scar from the Battle of the Department of Mysteries.

Remus suddenly grew a bit uncomfortable. Although he didn't think he had any feelings for this girl, he wouldn't deny that Hermione was pretty. But now only seen in her tank top, Remus couldn't help but feel a sudden rush of warmth flood his face.

Hermione didn't bother bringing the blanket back up to her shoulders. Instead she just placed her hands on top of her lap and looked at Remus with a placid look on her face.

Remus, on the other hand, looked at her straight in the eye, but soon his gaze traveled down to her cheeks, lips, neck, and then shoulder, but what caught his attention the most was the long, healed, white scar that was located right below her collarbone.

Hermione had followed the wizard's gaze, and knew that he was going to ask about it.

"What happened?" Remus questioned, just like Hermione predicted.

_"Here goes lie number two to my future professor."_

"I have so many that I don't remember where I got them from. I guess you could say I'm danger prone in some way," Hermione joked.

Remus laughed quietly, "I can relate."

He was about say something else, but Hermione beat him to it first.

"You should probably go back to bed," Hermione immediately got up while wrapping the blanket around her shoulder. "I feel guilty for keeping you awake."

"I'm fine, seriously. I have trouble sleeping once I'm awaken, so if you're not tired, would you keep me company?" Remus boldly asked while he too got up from the red couch that he was sitting on and stepped forward towards Hermione.

Hermione was startled at first, but then smiled and nodded. Remus sat back down on the couch but wanted to ask her if she wanted to sit next to him.

However, as if Hermione read his mind, she hesitantly shuffled towards Remus and sat next to him. Once sitting down, she hesitantly reached over to pull the blanket over Remus and was feeling embarrassed but scolded her thoughts and reached over anyways.

Remus couldn't help but blush a deeper red. He quickly tried to conceal it and was successful since Hermione was looking down at the wool blanket.

"Thanks," Remus shyly told her.

"No problem," Hermione smiled once more.

Silence entered the room but neither person was too uncomfortable with it. Both Remus and Hermione were not sure what to say since they were too shy or tongue-tied.

"Well," Hermione broke the silence first, "can you tell me about Sirius, James, and Peter?"

"This will definitely take a long time," Remus laughed softly, still considering those who were sleeping upstairs.

The Gryffindor boy started to tell her about the day they all met each other. As Remus described the following events, Hermione decided to take notes of it to tell Harry when she got back.

As Remus continued to go through the years, Hermione's eyelids started to droop. The warmth of the fire and the cozy blanket was slowly lulling her to sleep.

Although she tried to fight against the drowsiness, she couldn't help but fall asleep. Her eyelids slowly closed and when she didn't answer to Remus' question, he turned to find Hermione asleep.

He couldn't help but smile. Remus wanted to lay her down on the couch and go back upstairs, but he couldn't just leave her alone.

Remus gently grabbed her shoulder and guided her down to lay down on the couch with him. He settled the blankets to cover both of them, while doing so, Hermione snuggled deep into Remus' chest.

"_I bet James, Sirius and Peter will get a kick out of this in the morning,"_ Remus thought and fell asleep with his arms around Hermione.

* * *

**Was that awful? No? Yes? Maybe? **

**Tell me what you think because honestly, if nobody likes this I'm not going to waste my time uploading a bunch of nonsense. **

**Also, feel free to criticize, it's the only way for me to improve my writing. **

**Thanks! **

**-Susie**


	2. You Had Me From Hello

**Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me. The plot, however, is indeed mine except for one line in here that belongs to the lovely Jane Austen from Pride & Prejudice.  


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**Chapter 2 - You Had Me From Hello**

Hermione woke up with a citrus and woody scent that overpowered her senses. She knew that she was near somebody, although she didn't remember whom. However, as soon as Hermione opened one eye, she found Remus Lupin's face in front of her. The close proximity nearly made her fall off the couch.

_"Oh Merlin, how do I get out of this mess?" _Hermione furiously thought while shutting her eyes as if doing so would immediately erase the current situation.

The witch hesitantly re-opened her eyes and looked at Remus' face carefully. She felt like she was invading his privacy by gazing at him, but she couldn't help herself.

Hermione impulsively raised her hand and hesitantly caressed his sandy-colored locks. She pushed back stray piece of hair that fell over his forehead. It was indeed strange to see her former professor in such close proximity and although Hermione knew it was absolutely wrong, she couldn't help but not move away.

She brushed his hair once more, but this time, Remus awakened.

"Good morning," Remus yawned and then lazily opened his eyes to find a pair of wide, chocolate brown eyes looking straight at him.

He quickly looked down at their current position on the couch, and whispered, "Oh bugger."

Remus tried to get up quickly as possible, but the blanket that covered them up made him trip and fall flat on his face.

"Errgh..." he groaned.

He refused to look at the witch because he felt that he had embarrassed himself beyond anything imaginable.

Trying hard not to laugh, Hermione asked, "Are you okay?"

"Yea, I'm-"

Remus was cut off by an incredibly loud booming voice that belonged to none other than Sirius Black.

"GOOD MORNING ALL!" Sirius Black bounded down the stairs with James and Peter following after him.

"Moony, where were you last...night..." Sirius' words slowly died once his eyes fell on Remus' position on the floor and Hermione on the couch with a blanket over her.

Sirius narrowed his eyes, sat down roughly in front of Hermione and crossed his arms fiercely.

"Need a hand?" James grinned while offering a hand to his friend.

"Yeah, I could definitely use that," Remus grasped his friend's hand and got up.

Remus cautiously sat down next to Hermione and looked down at the floor.

"So what happened," Sirius asked accusingly towards his Remus.

Startled at Sirius' tone, Remus looked up and explained, "I woke up from all the snores coming from your side of the room so when I heard something in the common room, I went downstairs to find out what it was. And there Hermione was, on the couch. We just talked for a bit and fell asleep."

However, as Remus was trying to clarify what had happened, Sirius couldn't listen to one word. For some strange reason, a weird feeling encompassed his senses. If Sirius didn't know any better, he would have mistaken it for jealousy.

With wide eyes, Sirius looked off the side and clenched the upholstery of the couch in both hands, _"Surely I'm not... jealous. No... that's absolutely ridiculous."_

Before Sirius could fully panic, a red haired witch interrupted his thoughts.

"What's going on?" Lily sleepily asked while slowly walking down the stairs from the girls' dormitory.

"Lily!" Hermione was instantaneously relieved. "I've been meaning to ask you something for quite sometime."

With that, she grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her back upstairs to the girls' dormitory.

"Did you sleep next to her?" Peter asked.

Remus blushed, "I –er. Well you see, she fell asleep in a position where if I moved she'd wake up. The only thing I could do was to lie down next to her."

"Oh Moony, you beast," James laughed.

"There was nothing improper going on if that was what you were implying," Remus huffed.

"Moony, in your perspective, you sitting next to a girl should be censored," James teased. "So what you did last night was practically explicit material!"

"Shut up," was all Remus could muster up.

"And you definitely have a thing for her then," Sirius asked.

"I... wouldn't say that," Remus hesitantly answered.

"So, if someone else took interest in her, you wouldn't care?" Sirius' grey eyes seemed to challenge his friend's.

"No, I probably would," Remus confidently answered. "But then again, I'm up for a challenge."

James immediately noticed the sudden tension between his two friends, so he started to converse about something else with Remus. While Remus was busily engaged in another conversation, Sirius suddenly grew tense when he realized what had just happened.

"_What am I doing?"_ he asked himself.

Meanwhile, up in the girls' dormitory, Lily immediately interrogated her friend.

"So where were you last night? I noticed you weren't in bed this morning," she said.

"I just couldn't fall asleep last night. Time travel you know...kind of wore me out," Hermione cheekily replied while noticing that as Dumbledore had promised, there were books, money, and school supplies on her untouched bed.

"Oh, then what was Sirius all being grouchy about?" Lily asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Hermione, I wasn't aware that you were blind."

Hermione scowled, "Okay so he looked a little ticked off, but it's the morning. I'm sure that's a normal occurrence for him."

"Unfortunately," Lily crossed her arms, "that is never the case. He's always in a good mood in the morning. Something obviously upset him."

"And you think I'm the cause for his discomfort?"

"Could be a possibility."

"Well thanks Lily," Hermione scoffed.

Lily shrugged, "Well Sirius is well known to exhibit petulant behavior when something he likes is taken from him."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"Just a theory I'm throwing out. You must have done something to make him jealous or whatever," Lily then paused and asked, "Did you do something to make him jealous?"

Hermione quickly replied, "I don't think so?"

Lily looked at her friend curiously, "You sure?"

"Well, I mean, Remus was with me at night," Hermione said offhandedly.

"What?!" Lily exclaimed, causing for the rest of the girls in the dormitory to groggily yell at the witch.

"Don't listen to them," Lily yelled over the grumpy teenage girls. "Please elaborate more on what happened last night and don't skip out on any details?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "It was nothing. Remus just came down a few minutes after I did. He said that the guys were snoring incredibly loud so he couldn't sleep. We talked for a few minutes and I fell asleep. I didn't know he stayed with me until this morning."

"Hm," Lily brought a finger to her lips to think, "so did Sirius barge in on you two who were, I'm assuming, embracing each other?"

The other witch's face quickly flushed red, "Lily Evans, we did nothing of that sort!"

"But how else did you two both sleep on the couch without touching each other?" Lily laughed.

Hermione couldn't seem to find the right words to refute Lily's point.

Lily continued laughing but suddenly stopped and said, "Oh no."

"What now," Hermione sighed.

"Oh no," she repeated.

"Lily, really," the other witch began tapping her foot impatiently.

"That stupid git," Lily said to herself.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm not talking about your beloved Remus, so don't worry," Lily quickly said.

"Lily, I-"

The witch interrupted Hermione and whispered, "I think Sirius might fancy you."

This time, it was Hermione's turn to yell, "You're bloody mad!"

Following Hermione's sudden outburst, the partially woken girls voiced their complaints.

"It's only eight in the morning, shut it will you?" Julia hissed.

Lily and Hermione rolled their eyes and continued on with their conversation but in a more subdued fashion.

"What do you mean by that?" Hermione queried. "That's impossible."

"No," Lily defiantly shook her head in disagreement, "this is highly plausible. He's known to be easily attracted to girls."

"Aren't all guys that way?" Hermione joked.

Lily sighed, "Hermione, if he sees someone he deems as attractive, he will go at all odds to take her out on one date."

Hermione laughed, "Just one?"

"Well, from the years that I've known him, I've only seen him in one actually serious relationship with a girl," Lily informed her friend. "I believe it was last year before some of us went home for the winter holidays. Lasted for about a month."

"What happened?"

"From what I heard from James, apparently there were major differences between them."

"Oh..."

"Why, are you changing your mind about Remus already," Lily teased. "Personally, I'd go with Remus."

"Lily," Hermione sighed, "there is nothing going on between me and Remus nor Sirius."

"You might not think so, but they might."

"Whatever you say," Hermione gave up.

Soon afterward, the two quickly got dressed into their school uniforms and headed to the Great Hall.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As the two were walking into the Great Hall, Lucius Malfoy strutted up to greet them.

"I believe I haven't met you yet," Lucius pointed out in the same voice that the Marauders hexed him the night before.

"You met her now, so go away like a good snake," Lily tried to lead Hermione away from the Slytherin.

"Not so fast, Mudblood," Malfoy hissed.

Running over to Hermione from the Gryffindor table, Sirius Black cut in before Lily or Hermione could do anything.

"Malfoy, you heard the ladies, keep on walking."

Lucius' eyes narrowed dangerously, "Black, you'll pay for this."

"Yea right. Just hurry along and play potions master with Snivellus," Sirius retorted while grabbing Hermione's hand and leading her and Lily away from the blonde.

"Sirius, I was handling it," Lily explained while sitting next to James, who gave her a peck on the cheek.

"But nothing beats a good old banter with Lucius Malfoy in the morning," Sirius grinned.

"Banter any more, and you two will seem like an old married couple," Hermione teased and sat next to Remus.

Sirius immediately sat down next to Hermione and started to pile food onto his plate.

Remus looked to his right and hesitantly smiled, "Hi Hermione."

"Oh, hey Pr...emus?" Hermione quickly tried to fix her mistake of almost saying professor.

However, in response he laughed, "Did you just call me Premus?"

Hermione blushed from embarrassment, "...No."

"I think you did."

"Well, what if I did then?" Hermione stated.

Before Remus said anything, Professor McGonagall began passing out the timetables for the year. When all six of them received their schedules, they immediately compared with each other.

"I've got transfiguration for the first one," Peter Pettigrew yelled out.

"You git, all the Gryffindors have that class together, remember?" Sirius laughed although it sounded more like a bark.

"Oh... right," was the little boy's response.

"I'm not the only one who's confused right now," Hermione quickly added.

Hermione decided that if she was going to stay or at least stay here for awhile, she might as well try and change the mistakes that some people have made in the past. Although, being nice to Peter was going to be really hard. In response to Hermione's kindness, Peter smiled at Hermione and went back looking at his schedule.

The day was planned with Transfiguration first with Ravenclaws, Charms, Potions with Slytherins, and then Defense Against the Dark Arts with just Gryffindors. After lunch, the seventh years were taking some career specific classes; Hermione, Lily, and Remus shared Arithmetic and Ancient Runes after lunch.

Amidst everyone talking about schedules, without realizing, Sirius placed his right elbow on the table, let his face rest on his closed fist and casually looked at Hermione. However, once he realized what he had just done, a look of terror crossed his face.

"Sirius," Hermione looked at the Sirius, "are you okay?"

He coughed as if he choke on his food, "Yea, no I'm fine. It was just um...toast."

And knowing that Hermione would point out the lack of toast on his plate and hand, he reached across the table and grabbed James' toast out of his friend's hands and pointed at it.

"Are you implying that you somehow ate James' toast?" Hermione asked while laughing.

"So what did you say about your schedule James?" Sirius quickly turned his attention towards his toast-free friend.

As Hermione quickly looked over at Lily, she noticed her friend mouth, "This is you," and began fluttering her eyelashes at Sirius.

Hermione, miffed at Sirius' lack of response but more so of what Lily was doing, began stabbing her eggs that she was about to eat.

"I believe your eggs had enough of you viciously piercing them," Remus joked.

The witch merely sighed angrily.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It had been a month since Hermione had tumbled into the past and she wasn't any farther from where she was at with learning about Time Solstice. However, meanwhile, she had been fully immersing herself into her studies and getting to know her new six friends.

One morning, as the students left the Great hall to head to their classes, Lily pulled Hermione away from the four boys.

Sirius and James laughed at how Hermione was so resistant. Remus merely smiled to himself while he watched Lily drag Hermione towards the Transfiguration classroom with Hermione protesting that she needed her arm back.

"Lily, you know I have to use this someday, right?" Hermione tried grabbing back her arm.

"I believe someone needs saving," Sirius nudged James on the side and headed towards the two girls.

He grabbed Hermione's arm and easily pulled Lily away.

"My knight in shining armor," Hermione laughed.

"Not so fast vile opponent! How dare thee touch my fair maiden's hand!" James bellowed while charging towards Sirius with his wand out.

"En gaurde!" Sirius quickly brandished his wand and a piece of paper. He then transfigured the piece of paper into a miniature jousting stick.

"I believe that's only a term for fencing!" James corrected while he too followed his friend's lead and transfigured a piece of paper into a jousting stick.

Sirius and James acted as if they were jousting, but since horses were obviously unavailable to them, they galloped with their legs. Also, instead of running at each other from opposite ends like jousting is normally done, they chased each other around the hallway with their sticks flailing around their heads.

"Touché, my friend!" Sirius grinned while 'galloping' full speed at James.

Lily and Hermione watched curiously, but left as soon as they became uninterested which was in a minute.

"I was only kidding," Hermione laughed.

"They take everything seriously," Lily replied with a smile, but then added, "I take that back. They're only serious on things that shouldn't be taken seriously."

"I imagine that can get them into trouble a lot."

"Every time."

The both of them turned around to see both Sirius and James looking at them questioningly, their arms now by their sides.

"Come on, we're going to be late," Hermione beckoned to the boys.

Sirius immediately sprang towards the witch, leaving James, Peter, and Remus behind.

"Bloody idiot," James laughed at his friend.

"Don't know, don't care," was Remus' response, although he knew exactly what was going on.

When all of them entered the Transfiguration Room, there was an awkward shuffling around the room with the six teenagers trying to decide who was going to sit with whom. It was decided that James would be sitting with Lily, Hermione and Peter—by the witch's preference—and Sirius and Remus. Once they were all sitting down in their desks, Peter threw the girl next to him a grateful look.

"I almost thought that I was going to be the one left out. Thanks for sitting with me," Peter gave her a shy smile.

"No problem, I just haven't gotten a chance to talk to you at all," Hermione forced a smiled back.

"I'm not much of a talker," he replied while grabbing his books out.

Hermione replied, "I'm not much of a talker either."

"I doubt it. Besides, you've adjusted quite easily here."

"Thanks to you four and Lily," Hermione said, "Without them, I probably wouldn't have any friends."

"I know what you mean, without them, I would probably be labeled as a loser or something, not that I'm not already," Peter claimed.

Hermione merely gave him a smile.

Peter was about to say something else, but Professor McGonagall swiftly opened the doors to the classroom and started to write notes on the chalkboard about the basics of becoming an Animaigus. Hermione immediately noticed that the four Marauders all looked at each other with a wide grin, she smiled to herself, _"Wonder what it's like to become an Animaigus..."_

Class was over quickly, or that's what it felt like to Hermione, and all the students that were in the Transfiguration Room started to pour out into the hallways.

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"By Jove, if I ever hear one more sentence containing the word 'Animaigus' I'm going to go mental!" Lily exclaimed into the empty corridors at the end of the day.

The professors had apparently planned their lessons to follow one subject, and sadly for Lily's part, it was all about transforming into an Animaigus. The Marauders on the other hand, knew the particular subject very well, since three of them were capable of transforming into animals already.

"Oh cheer up, Lils. It was bound to happen one day," James wrapped an arm around Lily's shoulder.

"Arghhh," was her response.

Hermione softly chortled and suddenly gasped when Sirius jumped by her side.

She glared at him, "You scared me."

James, who was listening into the conversation, commented, "If you're scared of _that_ right now, then wait till you see him in the morning!"

"Aww... Prongs! Not fair, I don't go snitching to Lily about all your secrets."

With a devilish grin, James looked at Hermione and said, "But he plays guitar so I guess that makes up for his goofiness."

"You play the guitar?" Hermione asked with interest.

Sirius gave James a menacing look and then softened his facial features when he turned to Hermione, "It's nothing. I just play when I'm bored."

"Don't be so modest Padfoot," James slapped his friend on the back. "He's crazy good."

The Marauders and the two girls, still conversing, started to head back to their common room. James and Lily were holding hands in the front while Peter was tagging along behind them and Sirius and Remus soon flanked Hermione's sides.

Before Sirius could say anything, Remus asked, "So how do you like Hogwarts?"

"I like it so far... the professors are incredibly fascinating," Hermione replied.

"We should-"

Remus was interrupted by Lily.

"Hermione! I've got to tell you something," Lily beckoned her friend over.

Hermione gave Remus an apologetic look then walked towards Lily, who left behind James. While she skipped, her brown tresses bounced up and down, catching the sunset light from the window in her hair.

Remus sighed... This was the very thing that he was trying to avoid; it was going to be a very long year for him.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The six Gryffindors returned back to their dormitories after dinner and sat in the chairs that they rightly called 'theirs'.

Hermione started to walk towards the red chair that she found herself comfortable in, but when she was about to sit down, she remembered that it was Remus' favorite chair. She sharply turned and sat in the couch that Remus and Hermione had shared earlier in the morning. The amber eyed Gryffindor's face beheld a quizzical brow, but nevertheless sat in the chair that he was so fond of.

Sirius happily bounced towards Hermione and sat next to her on the couch. He made himself comfortable, which was leaning down really low and holding his head up by his two hands that were resting on the back of his head. Sirius closed his eyes and breathed in deeply; Hermione quickly glanced at the close proximity of her and Sirius, she tried not to think about it but that easier said than done. What Lily had said earlier still haunted her thoughts.

Meanwhile, James and Lily were curled up in a small couch; they both had closed their eyes. Peter, however, was rummaging through his bag trying to find a quill, although it was very easily noticeable that it was located in the front pocket.

"Peter, it's in the pocket up front," Hermione advised the pudgy boy.

The boy responded by looking at the front of his bag, finding the quill, and smiling sheepishly at the witch. She grinned, and she too started to look through her bag. Only a few seconds later, she opened a red leather-bound book, she was halfway through it.

He had been casually glancing at her every so often while he read his own book for one of his classes and when he noticed Hermione pulling out a book, he asked, "What are you reading?"

Sirius opened one of his eyes and looked at Hermione curiously.

"_Pride and Prejudice_, it's by Jane Austen," Hermione smiled fondly at the book she held in her hand.

"Care to tell me what it's about?" Sirius asked in a low voice while he moved to sit up straighter.

Hermione, startled that he was listening in, nodded slightly.

"It's pretty complicated to explain, you'd have to read it. Although, just to warn you, it is a 19th century love story," the witch laughed slightly at the thought of guys reading romance books.

"Have a favorite character?"

Sirius' gray eyes stared into Hermione's own eyes which caused for her to grow uncomfortable.

The Gryffindor girl stuttered while looking down, "I... I- yes, I do. Mr. Darcy I suppose."

"Who?" Sirius gave the girl a bewildered look.

"Should I even bother trying to explain?"

"Er-no, I don't think you should since well, this was the first time I've ever heard of him and the book for that matter," Sirius sheepishly smiled at her.

Hermione couldn't help but faintly smile back at him. However, as quick as the smile had appeared, she swiftly looked away.

"My mum read it, but it was way back then. I still remember her laughing, getting angry and loads of other emotions. It was quite amusing, although I was only nine at the time," Remus added in.

"Oh, I thought I was the only one getting a tad emotional about the book, but it's so good!" Hermione was sitting on the edge of her chair.

Sirius looked sideways at her and chuckled in a quiet manner.

"And can I ask why Mr. Darcy is your favorite character?" Remus asked.

"I-erm... it's a bit embarrassing, really."

"What are you three talking about," James asked sleepily into Lily's red hair.

"Ew, James, don't breathe on me," a muffled voice came from the James' shirt.

"You know you love it."

"In your dreams."

"But you're already in my dreams" James sang.

"You are so stupid at times and I ask myself all the time why I decided to become your girlfriend," Lily laughed.

James then wrapped his arms around her and kissed her softly on her forehead. The green eyed witch blushed brightly while Hermione smiled forlornly; they reminded her of Ginny and Harry so much.

"Get a room!" Sirius yelled.

"Just because you don't have anyone doesn't mean you have to take it out on a happy couple," James grumbled, but stood up and led Lily outside the Common Room.

Sirius then looked over at Hermione and leaned over, draping his arm around her shoulder.

"Do you mind if I read with you?" Sirius whispered softly near Hermione's ear.

The girl tried to hide her shiver, "Um... I er- I guess not."

Remus, on the other side, suddenly fumed with anger. He thought, _"Sirius should fully be well aware that I may have some feeling for her..."_

Although Sirius had said he was going to read with Hermione, he was more particularly interested in the nice aroma coming off of Hermione's hair.

Hermione suddenly closed the book and started to get up; Hermione couldn't stay sitting there on the couch with Sirius so close to her. However, Sirius grabbed her left arm to prevent her from leaving.

"Where are you going?" his voice sounded a bit husky.

"I'm a little tired, so I'll be off to bed. I'll see you two tomorrow, Remus, Sirius," Hermione nodded to the both of them and practically bolted up the stairs.

Although, the two boys didn't exactly notice, Remus was glaring Sirius who had a daydream look in his eyes.

"Do you like her?" Remus asked suddenly, breaking the grey eyed teenager's thoughts.

"What?"

"Do. you. like. her." he repeated, slightly becoming annoyed.

"She's pretty cute. I wouldn't mind getting to know her better," Sirius replied in a matter-in-fact tone.

"Are you sure that she's just not going to be another notch on your bedpost, Sirius," Remus narrowed his eyes.

"What's gotten into you Remus?" Sirius asked flabbergasted.

"It's nothing," Remus suddenly drew back and closed his eyes; he let out a sigh.

Sirius suddenly became aware of what was going on.

"You like Hermione Granger," he slowly said.

Remus' eyebrows furrowed deeply.

"Sirius..." he slowly began, but was soon cut off by his friend.

"You just didn't seem too interested. I thought you were being your typical Remus Lupin self," Sirius explained.

Remus let out a sarcastic laugh, "Because I was being nice?"

"No, it's just-"

"She's different Sirius," Remus told his friend. "And if you hurt her, I don't know what I'd do to you."

With that, Remus got up and started to head upstairs to his dormitory.

However, behind a slightly opened door, Hermione stood in shock. What Sirius and Remus obviously didn't know was that Hermione had heard every single word that they had said. She froze when she saw Remus looking up at the door, but relaxed when he turned away.

Without thinking, Hermione walked down the stairs to the Common Area. It was when Sirius, with a startled expression, asked what she was doing down here.

"I - um.. couldn't sleep?" her response turned into a question.

"It seems as if you can't sleep at night lately," Sirius teased.

"I- well..." Hermione attempted to say something but failed miserably.

"_She's cute when she's embarrassed," _Sirius suddenly thought.

Hermione thought that telling Sirius was probably not a good idea, so instead, she said, "Could you teach me how to play the guitar? I've wanted to learn ever since I was a child."

Sirius's face lit up and as a response, he shook his head up with a maniacal grin on his.

"Didn't think it would make you so happy for me to learn the guitar..." Hermione muttered silently to herself.

The wizard merely smiled.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh but that soon died down when Remus came down and walked towards them. At first he was surprised that Hermione was down here, but soon the shock turned into jealousy.

"Oh! Hi Remus," Hermione, shocked at seeing Remus come into the room suddenly, quickly said.

"Could I talk to you?" Remus said while grabbing Hermione's hand without even waiting for an answer.

Sirius jumped up from the couch as if he was going to stop Remus, but decided against it when his friend led Hermione towards the bottom of the staircase that led to the girls' dormitory.

"Ouch, Lup- Remus, you're hurting me," Hermione whimpered while trying to take back her hand.

He immediately loosened his grip on Hermione's arm but still moved his hand down to her own hand. Hesitantly, Remus lifted her hand up to his lips. Closing his eyes, he gently pressed his lips against her skin. Hermione stood there with a shocked expression on her face.

Sirius, who was still standing up, felt a surge of jealousy flow through his body.

Remus whispered, "Hermione, I know this is incredibly forward of me, but if I go on any further without saying something I might just explode. Although I've only known you for a month, it's been rather difficult for me."

"I-"

"Please let me finish," Remus kindly whispered. "The moment I saw you, I knew you were kind but I knew that if I were to get to know you any more, I would probably end up liking you. However, against my better judgment, I find myself in this position telling you that Hermione, you've bewitched me, body and soul. Simply, you had me from hello."

* * *

***Cue dramatic music* What shall our heroine do now? **

**Anyway, I'm really thankful for the feedback given by my first reviewers: Irritable-Grizzly69, PJ littlefoot, classicmovielover, lovely obsession, Suck-A-Butt [I did not pay attention to your pen name like you asked], and padfootsgrl79. **

**Also, thanks to all who have placed this story under their alert! **

**Oh and other than the appreciation... I was flipping through the channels this morning and noticed Order of the Phoenix showing on one of my movie channels. I must say, the movie kind of depressed me and couldn't watch the ending. Sirius, being my favorite character and all, dying isn't cool at all. **

**By the way, did anybody else think that Sirius would have looked differently in the movie? Same goes with Remus... I mean, I completely respect Gary Oldman and David Thewlis, but... they just aren't Sirius and Remus to me. **

**Sorry for all the babbling. Thanks for reading! **

**-Susie**


	3. Clumsy Heart

**DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me! The label clearly says J.K. Rowling.

* * *

**

**Chapter 3 – Clumsy Heart  
**

"Remus... I-" Hermione was cut off when Remus placed his hands on her shoulder and slowly leaned in.

In a matter of seconds, Hermione felt warm lips touch her own. Contrary to what she planned on doing, she closed her eyes and placed her hands on Remus' chest. But when she realized what she was doing, she immediately pulled away.

"Remus," Hermione pulled her head away, "I... we ca- I can't do this. I'm sorry."

Without waiting to hear what Remus had to say, Hermione ran up to the girls' dormitories and closed the door quite forcefully, which caused for some of the slumbering girls to glare at Hermione.

Hermione quickly walked over to her bed, ignoring the complaints that her peers were giving her. She fell down on her bed and groaned. While thinking back on what had just happened, the witch's hand snaked up to her face and let her fingers rest on her still tingling lips.

However, Hermione's thoughts were disturbed when Lily prodded her shoulder.

"Hermione," she asked, "what's wrong?"

When the other witch didn't answer, Lily sighed and left.

Meanwhile, after Hermione left him, Remus stood there awkwardly no knowing what to do now. He had told a girl he had feelings for her for the first time. Sure, he had crushes but he never had the courage to pursue anything. But now, Remus felt a pain he never felt before.

Near the fireplace, Sirius was sitting down from shock; he ran his hands through his shaggy hair and looked down at the floor. He realized how Remus must feel from this rejection and felt an immediately surge of sympathy for his best friend.

"Remus," Sirius called out after a few minutes, "we need to talk."

"I don't know what else you can possibly say to me right now, Sirius," Remus responded.

"Look, I'm sorry for earlier," Sirius apologized and then added, "Just come over here."

"Fine," Remus huffed and trudged over to his friend.

Once the teen sat down next to Sirius, he asked in a weary voice, "What do you want."

"It's about Hermione," Sirius muttered.

"Let's not get into this again," the other Gryffindor ran his hand through his hair—a particular trait that all the Marauder's inherited from each other with the exception of Peter since he didn't have long enough hair.

"No, I refuse to let this get between us," Sirius stepped up from the red couch he was sitting on.

"Now you're being the mature one? When did this happen," Remus taunted while narrowing his eyes.

"I'm not throwing away years of friendship just for a girl," Sirius defended himself.

"But what I'm wondering is, do you think she'd give you the time of day when she hears about how you treat other girls?" Remus said.

Sirius couldn't say anything about that because he knew that his reputation at Hogwarts was for being a womanizer.

"Maybe we should just let her decide?" Sirius suggested.

"That's the last thing we want to do to her. She barely knows us and knowing her she'd be afraid to hurt either of our feelings. Maybe we should just not make anything that would make her uncomfortable in any way," Remus said.

"Honestly mate, I don't bloody care what the hell we do, just as long as we stop fighting," Sirius laughed.

Remus grinned, "We should get back upstairs."

In the girls' dormitory, Lily tried to get Hermione to talk once more.

"Lily, you're just going to say 'I told you so' and laugh," Hermione said and quickly put her face into her pillow.

"I promise I won't," Lily quickly replied.

"Fine..." Hermione groaned but didn't get up.

Lily jumped onto her friend's bed, shut the curtains around them, and placed a silencing spell.

"Okay, tell me everything."

Few minutes elapsed.

"So basically, Remus and Sirius think your cute and want to date you."

"Yea," Hermione grumbled, "I guess."

"Although I do loathe Sirius Black sometimes... at least they both are good looking?"

"Lily!" Hermione groaned and shoved her face into her pillow, "you're not helping one bit!"

"I mean, Remus is sophisticated handsome and if you get past Sirius' ridiculous personality and sense of humor, he's got that rugged appearance."

When Hermione looked surprised, Lily immediately added, "Oh, Hermione stop being silly, I'm talking about the way other girls might think of him. And besides, James and Sirius aren't the only guys that those girls outside your curtains talk about. They think Remus is this sexy all around guy since he's a bit athletic, good looking, _and_ has brains."

"You don't understand, he's **Remus Lupin**."

"Hermione, he's not _that_ bad!"

"He was my professor!" Hermione blurted and when she realized what she said, she immediately clamped her hand over her mouth. With a muffled tone, she said, "You didn't hear that."

Lily just winked and asked, "So we've got an unrequited love triangle."

Hermione gave her friend an odd expression.

Lily laughed and replied, "Well, its obvious Remus is definitely interested in you as well as Sirius yet you have no interest in them... unless you aren't telling me something."

The other witch blushed furiously, "Stop it Lily, I don't like either of them that way. It's incredibly disturbing to think that I'm falling in love with the men that I knew to be -"

"Very sexy and handsome men," Lily finished the sentence without a huge smile.

"You know I don't know why you're so eager for me to like either of them, especially Sirius," Hermione let out a sigh.

"Why are you singling out Sirius, Hermione? Hm?" Lily joked.

"You're hopeless," Hermione said exasperatedly and threw her hands up in the air.

Lily placed a finger on her lip, and suddenly her eyes filled with mischief, "Did you ever fancy your professor?"

"Wha- I- that's ridiculous. Lily I can't believe- I-" Hermione stuttered out while turning an even brighter shade of red.

"Blush any harder and I think you might just explode from all that blood rushing into your head," Lily teased. "Oh, but what about the irresistible Sirius Black? There was an implication that you knew him. You didn't fancy him, did you?"

Hermione shut out what Lily was saying by placing her hands on her ears and glaring at her friend.

"I can't hear you," Hermione scowled.

"Don't be silly," Lily smiled, "yes you can."

With that, she grabbed both of Hermione's hands and placed them aside.

"What now..." Hermione muttered.

"I just never thought you'd be interested into older guys," Lily shrugged.

"You know, just because I had a crush on Remus when he taught me does not mean that I like older men in general. Sirius Black, on the other hand, was just a friend who was ridiculously immature for his age," Hermione gave up and told Lily a gist.

"I still think you like older men," the other witch stubbornly replied.

"It's not even like that!"

As if Lily didn't hear a word, she continued, "Yeah, okay it's still apparent you had crushes on Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Well lucky you, you're back in the past which so happened to include younger and more accessible Remus Lupin and Sirius Black.

Hermione just sighed, completely frustrated at her new friend.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The next few days were uneventful until one day during breakfast.

The group all sat like they had the day before with Lily, James, and Peter on one side while Sirius, Hermione, and Remus sat on the other.

Hermione slowly and quietly picked at her breakfast plate while the rest of the other teens were joking around with each other. It was when Lily tried to get her attention did she start talking in a quiet voice.

"Hermione," Lily whispered.

The girl didn't answer.

"Hermione!" the witch said in a louder voice.

This time, Hermione raised her head up slowly.

"What?" she quietly asked.

Lily didn't say anything, but her facial expressions said everything.

"Can I talk to you for a bit?" Lily said.

"Okay..." Hermione looked at her friend expectantly.

"In private?" Lily had to add.

"Oh," Hermione replied and got up from the bench and started to walk out towards the halls with Lily.

"What's with her?" James asked his two friends that were sitting in front of him.

Sirius and Remus glanced at each other fully knowing what was wrong with Hermione Granger.

"Beats me," Sirius mumbled then started to stare in fascination at his food.

"Yeah..." Remus breathed out.

Meanwhile, Lily asked in a frustrated tone, "What's the matter? You've been incredibly quiet for the past four days. So what if Remus and Sirius like you? Besides you don't even like them so you shouldn't act uncomfortably around them. Just be yourself, Hermione."

"Lily, it's just complicated," Hermione responded. _"If I act like myself, then I won't be able to leave here. Remus is the only thing here that I have from the future and almost like an anchor, but now that I know he likes me, I just can't seem to act normally around him. Besides, if I ever do like one of them, it would be harder for me to leave and..." _

"Wait, Hermione... are you afraid of liking them?" Lily suddenly asked.

Hermione looked at a different direction, and abruptly walked back inside the Great Hall. She turned around to wait for her friend.

"You know, you should probably just make up your mind about them. Either pick one of them or just tell them you're not interested," Lily whispered to Hermione while walking back to the table.

"Easier said than done. I don't to make things even more awkward," Hermione answered.

The two split up and walked to the opposite ends and sat where they sat before.

"You okay?" Remus asked Hermione.

The witch smiled, "Yeah I am, why?"

"You just seemed a little tense," Remus gave her a worried look.

"It's just homesickness," Hermione reassured him.

"Do you plan on visiting them during the winter break?"

Hermione couldn't help but laugh at the question because of her situation. She replied, "I can't. My family is going on a um... trip."

"Oh..."

"No matter though, I'll see them soon enough."

Once all six of the Gryffindors finished their breakfast, they headed over to their classes.

"I hate Tuesdays," Sirius whined while walking lazily in the hallway.

"Here, here," James agreed half-heartedly.

"What's wrong with Tuesday?" Hermione queried.

"What's wrong with Tuesday?" Sirius looked as if Hermione had committed blasphemy. "Tuesday is probably the worst day of the week! But the most awful part on Tuesdays is if it's sunny because it shines and blasts ruddy rays light mocking me that I have to go to classes today rather than go outside and play some Quidditch."

"And I'm guessing you'd hate Wednesday since it's right in between the week and it's making fun of you that you only have one more day until Friday," Hermione replied.

Sirius stopped walking and when he realized that what Hermione had said was completely true, he stomped his foot and exclaimed, "I hate Tuesdays and Wednesdays!"

"Pads," the messy haired Gryffindor laid a hand on his friend's shoulder, "it's okay."

"No it is not. I'm dying to go outside and do something fun!"

Lily and Hermione rolled their eyes and walked off, leaving the guys behind them.

This caused for the two boys to look at each other and stop their conversation.

"Sometimes, I really hate it when they just leave like that..." James huffed.

"Maybe it's the way we act?" Peter asked.

The three other Marauders looked at each other and simultaneously disagreed.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

After classes, Hermione immediately headed over to the library. She stepped inside the book haven and smiled to herself; this was practically like her second home. Hermione remembered when her, Harry, and Ron were looking for all the solutions for Harry's problems in here.

She walked into the aisle where there was a huge section about time traveling. The witch had covered most of the books in the past two months, but there were still more to go.

Hermione ran her finger along the leather spines of the worn books that she had already read. It was until her finger hit a book with a red leather cover. She took the book out of the shelf and looked at the title. _A Time Traveler's Guide: Time Solstice, What is it? _by Gwen McKiflin.

"Finally!" Hermione whispered to herself and greedily opened the book.

_"Time solstice is a very mysterious way of time traveling. It is not known to many wizards or witches since only one out of one thousand has the special type of wand for it. The name itself is self explanatory, but if you still don't get it reader, here it is. Solstice is a term used when the sun's rays hit the earth at two certain points of the year. For time solstice, only during the solstice period, can the wand owner travel into the future or the past. There are infinite numbers of small invisible holes around you, now don't look around, because like I said, they are INVISIBLE. The only thing that can actually penetrate through it is a wand, and what type of wand do you ask? Well, that would be a-" _

Hermione felt a tap on her shoulder; she immediately turned around with her wand in the face of the person.

"Woah," Sirius pushed away Hermione's wand away from his face, "what's with the hostility?"

Hermione placed a hand above her heart, "You scared me."

"Really? Were you reading naughty books?" Sirius slyly grinned and peered down at the book that Hermione was reading.

"Sirius Black!" Hermione exclaimed while placing her hands on her hips and scowling.

"Don't scrunch up your pretty face like that," Sirius chided.

Hermione rolled her eyes and walked towards the front desk of the library to check out her book selection. Sirius jogged to catch up to her. He could have sprinted, but Madam Pince would probably have a heart attack.

"Not so fast, now," Sirius placed his hand on Hermione's shoulder to stop her from going any further.

The witch turned around to face him, but almost jumped back when she noticed how close Sirius was to her.

"You walk fast, did you know that?" Sirius dramatically exhaled.

Hermione laughed silently, and pushed Sirius's hand from her shoulder, "If you don't mind, I have to go and check this book out."

"All right, but I'm not done with you yet," he warned.

"Should I be scared?" Hermione joked and then turned around to walk to the desk.

Sirius didn't respond, but smiled to himself like an idiot.

Once Hermione checked out her book, she walked out of the library to find Sirius leaning against the wall on the other side of the hall.

"Took you long enough," Sirius feigned a scowl.

"Don't scrunch up your pretty face like that," Hermione threw back what Sirius had said earlier.

Sirius looked at her with a mischievous look in his eyes, "So you think I'm pretty?"

"Sirius, do you have to tell me something or did Lily send you?" Hermione blatantly ignored Sirius' question.

He gasped, "I can't just visit you? I'm hurt."

When Hermione didn't say anything but merely look at him, the boy gave up and told her why he came to her.

"I was still wondering if you were up for the guitar lessons that we were talking about the other day."

"Oh! I completely forgot about that," Hermione said while toying with her book. "Well, I suppose I'm still interested."

"Excellent," Sirius smirked and threw his arm around her shoulder.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Sirius and Hermione came in the Gryffindor Common Room laughing... well Sirius did most of the laughing.

"Okay," Sirius said to himself, "Have to calm down."

This action caused Hermione to look at Sirius incredulously.

"Sirius you're such a-"

"-sexy, deliciously, irresistibly, handsome Gryffindor?" he threw out complimentary adjectives.

"I was going to say weird," Hermione replied but smiled and sat down on one of the couches.

Sirius knelt in front of her and made a puppy face, "I'm hurt."

"Didn't mean to hurt your huge ego," Hermione laughed, "but I speak the truth."

Sirius sighed inwardly in response, looked into Hermione's eyes, and gave her his famous smile. "I guess that's okay."

However, instead of saying something, Hermione's cheeks immediately tinted pink. She bit her lower lip then turned her head to the side to look away.

Sirius shot an eyebrow up and grinned to himself. He quickly gathered her hands together and placed them in between his own. There was a shocked expression on Hermione's face, which had caused Sirius to laugh once more.

"_We_ need to get started on those guitar lessons," he started to get up, pulling Hermione along with him.

"Right now?" Hermione asked hesitantly.

"Well, what's a better time than now? Oh, and the guitar's upstairs. If it doesn't bother you much, we could have our lesson there," Sirius cautiously asked the girl in front of him.

Hermione quickly let go of Sirius' hands, "Do you think that's a good idea? It _is_ the boy's dormitories and well the rules..."

"Are you worried that I might have secret intentions? I'm offended," Sirius placed a hand over his heart.

"Actually, I was just worried about what Lily would say" Hermione lied about not thinking about Sirius' intentions, although now that she thought about it, she was a little worried that Lily would over exaggerate.

"Yea, I guess that could prove to be a problem," Sirius paused and then said, "I guess we'll just have to be really quiet then, hm?"

Giving Hermione a wink, he grabbed her hand and headed upstairs into the boys' dormitories.

Once they were inside, the first thing Hermione could see were unmade beds and a messy floor. However, some beds were made, but that was extremely rare. But for some reason, none of the boys were in the dormitory.

Sirius ran a hand through his hair, "I guess the lack of males in the room will help you to be not caught by Lily?"

"Yea, I would think so," Hermione laughed.

"Well, the guitar is over here," Sirius said while leading her over to the other side of the room.

He reached under his bed and grabbed his guitar.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

"Well," Sirius sat down on his bed and patted the empty space beside him, "come into my chamber of music and sit your pretty self down."

Hermione shook her head while rolling her eyes and gently sad down on the bed leaving a modest distance between her and Sirius.

"I won't bite," Sirius smirked when he noticed how far Hermione was sitting away from him.

The witch shifted slightly closer to him but still leaving a noticeable gap between them.

Sirius sighed and quickly moved closer to Hermione.

"Here," he handed Hermione his guitar.

When Hermione grabbed the guitar, Sirius whined almost like a dog and said, "Be careful.

"I'll be careful," she tried hard not to laugh. "Okay, what now?"

"We'll start with chords, now place your fingers on the third string. Wait. No, Hermione, not like that."

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh and continued to struggle with her finger placement.

"You just have to- just put-" Sirius tried to explain to Hermione. "You know what, here."

Sirius settled himself behind Hermione and soon wrapped his arms around her while placing his hands on Hermione's own hands. She froze. The feeling of his arms around her felt extremely intimate and incredibly wrong.

However, before Hermione could voice her concern, Sirius leaned into Hermione's ear and whispered instructions to her caused series of tingles to crawl down her back.

"Now," Sirius directed, "place your fingers like this."

Hermione complied. Besides, it wasn't as if she had a choice.

"And then, slowly strum your fingers on this side," Sirius whispered into her ear and smiled when he felt Hermione shiver.

When Hermione, with the help of Sirius, played a chord, he congratulated her.

"Good job," he muttered into her ear.

Sirius smelt the faint aroma of vanilla coming off of Hermione. He nuzzled his head in the crook of her neck, this action made Hermione hitch a breath.

"Sirius..." Hermione stiffly said.

Disregarding Hermione's panicked voice, Sirius mumbled in a low voice, "You smell really good," and enclosed Hermione in his arms tighter.

Hermione turned her face slowly to look at Sirius. He immediately raised his head from his earlier position and looked at her intensely. It was only a matter of seconds that he pressed his lips on hers gently.

The contact made Hermione feel an electrifying shock, which Sirius felt as well. He ran his tongue underneath Hermione's lower lip causing her to gasp in shock. He then slowly started to kiss her passionately.

_"I should stop him. I really should- Oh Merlin..."_ was all Hermione thought.

Sirius broke of the kiss to push the guitar out of Hermione's grasp and laid it down on the floor. He immediately turned back to capture Hermione's lips. He soon guided her down on his bed. Surprisingly for Hermione, she made no attempts to remove herself from him.

The wizard was soon on top of Hermione with one hand cradling her face and the other on the side of them to remove some weight on the girl. Hermione had wrapped her arms around Sirius's neck with her fingers intertwined in Sirius' dark locks. Hermione let out a small moan into his mouth causing for Sirius to kiss her furiously.

Because Sirius and Hermione were so engaged with each other, they didn't hear the three Marauders coming into the dorm; Remus, James and Peter stood in shock.

_"What the hell is going on?!" _Remus thought angrily.

When James coughed, the two students immediately pulled apart which ultimately caused for Sirius to fall on the floor.

"Oh shit," Sirius looked up at Hermione and then at his friends, but mostly Remus.

Sirius's hair was mussed up from Hermione's fingers and his lips were slightly swollen like Hermione's. The appearance of the two caused for Remus to feel disgust.

Sirius soon realized how angry Remus was when he locked eyes with his friend. Just as soon as he did though, Remus hurtled himself across the room towards him. A resounding crack was heard in the room when Remus punched Sirius squarely on the jaw. Hermione quickly jumped off the bed and grabbed Remus' shoulders and told him to stop.

Remus whipped his head towards the side and briefly looked at Hermione with a hurt expression but said sternly, "Don't get into this."

As Sirius was lying on the ground holding his jaw and in slight pain, he didn't bother to punch Remus back. However, he didn't think that Remus would go at him again...

Remus mustered up all the strength in him and immediately started to hit Sirius. He was stopped mid-punch when James grabbed his fist to prevent him from hitting Sirius.

"Let me go," Remus growled while struggling against James's grasp.

Sirius slowly got up while wiping blood that trickled down from his cut mouth. He looked at Hermione with eyes full of apology. Hermione, however, was frozen on the spot, she wasn't sure what to do now.

"Hermione? I think it's best if you could go to your dorm right now," James grunted while trying to keep Remus from tackling Sirius once more.

As soon as those words came out, Hermione rushed out of the boys' dorm. She ran to her own dorm and sat on her bed.

Hermione sat there thinking about what had just happened with a bewildered expression on her face.

Lily was about to joke about how ridiculous Hermione looked, but when she noticed the witch's swollen lips and heated face, Lily immediately asked, "What happened to you? Was it Remus?"

"I don't want to talk about," Hermione replied while looking down.

Lily walked towards Hermione's bed and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, "It'll be harder to get through it if you don't say anything, and I'm sure the thing you're talking about isn't so bad."

"Just as long as you promise me you won't say I told you so? Because I'm in no mood to defend myself," Hermione made her friend promise.

"Uh... sure," Lily hesitantly replied.

Hermione sighed and said, "Well, Sirius met up with me at the library and asked if I still wanted to learn the guitar. I told him I didn't mind, so we headed back to his dorm. Everything was going fine, but somehow he ended up kissing me."

"And then..." Lily asked when Hermione paused.

"Um... James, Peter and Remus came in at some point and Remus basically charged at Sirius. It was a one-sided fight though because Sirius didn't fight back. Luckily though, James grabbed a hold of Remus and suggested that I should go back to the girls' dormitory."

"Wow..."

"Yea, you could say that again."

"That's pretty intense, Hermione," Lily said. "Maybe you really should choose or say no to them sooner. This isn't just disappearing on its own."

"Why does this have to happen?" Hermione groaned.

Lily shrugged, "Maybe you should just act like you do around me."

"But I do! That didn't get me anywhere obviously," Hermione said in a frustrated voice.

The other witch sat quietly and thought for a moment then exclaimed, "I have a plan!"

Before waiting for a response, Lily grabbed Hermione's hand and rushed out of their dorms.

Meanwhile, in the boys' dormitories, Remus was glaring at Sirius while he was being contained by James. Sirius couldn't bring himself to look at his friend, so he stared blankly at the carpeted floor.

"Can anyone give me a damn clue what the hell is happening?!" James asked in a frustrated tone.

"Ask Sirius," Remus spat out the name as if it was dirt, "he seems to know what he's doing."

Sirius finally looked up to find Remus looking at him savagely.

"I'm sorry, I-I didn't know what I was doing until now," Sirius apologized, it was half true, being around Hermione caused him to forget about everything which included the hands off Hermione bit.

"You know, this is just a girl we're talking about. We barely know her and you two are acting as if you both like her or something," James said.

Remus sardonically laughed and said, "Maybe it's because we do."

"What?!" James exclaimed. "When did this happen?"

Disregarding James' question, Sirius said to Remus, "Look, I'm serious. I really wasn't aware of what I was doing. It was until I heard someone cough that I realized what was going on."

"Even," Remus muttered.

"What?" Sirius looked at his friend incredulously.

"It's even, I kissed her that one night and you kissed her today. We're even, just as long as you swear to me that if you do something like this one more time-" Remus was cut off.

"I should expect to be murdered in the dead of night," Sirius solemnly said.

"Yea, something like that," Remus smirked.

"Oh god... I'm never going to get this bloody mess. Wait, Moony, you _kissed_ her?!" James ran a hand through his hair in shock. "So what are you two going to do then? Both chase after her or something?"

Ignoring James once more, Sirius announced, "Let's go down to dinner, I'm hungry."

"I think you're always hungry," Remus added while getting up.

"What the hell! Why won't anyone answer my fucking question?" James exclaimed while throwing his hands up in the air.

"Because it's Sirius," Peter replied.

"But Remus?"

"Yea... beats me."

As Sirius and Remus led the way towards the Great Hall, James was still talking to Peter about how ridiculous Sirius and Remus were both being.

"You know, I think it might be a little awkward at dinner," Remus said to Sirius.

"Thought you'd never bring it up," Sirius sighed. "Well, we could just act like our crazy maniacal selves, oh don't look at me like Moony, you know it's true. You're the silent beast that the young females in our school love. And if that doesn't work, we'll just have to try and break the ice."

Remus shook his head side to side and laughed, "You aren't thinking what I'm thinking?"

"IF it so happens to involve a certain Slytherin named Lucius Malfoy, then I am thinking what you are thinking."

Both Gryffindors slyly looked at each other and slapped each other's hands.

"Oy! What are you two up to now?" James yelled.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Lily and Hermione had walked into the Great Hall and were eating their dinner slightly earlier than the usual to avoid the boys.

"What if they show up?" Hermione said while scanning the room.

The other witch shrugged, "You could always just leave."

"Yea, that won't make it any more awkward. What's the plan that you were talking about just a few minutes earlier anyway," Hermione asked.

"It's nothing actually."

"Lily, tell me _now_," Hermione sternly muttered under her breath.

"Really Hermione, have patience," Lily off-handedly said.

Once Hermione noticed the four teenagers, she began panicking.

"Lily, I really might just leave."

"Hermione, don't you dare!"

Before Hermione could say anything, James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter sat down at the table.

"Hey," James leaned down and kissed his girlfriend on the cheek.

"Sirius, Remus, Peter," Lily nodded to the rest of the boys.

"Lily," they all simultaneously responded.

James, as usual sat next to Lily, while Peter sat next to James. Remus and Sirius looked at each other then Hermione. The two Gryffindor boys cautiously sat down in between the witch. Hermione made no movements, so the both of them sighed.

"Hey Hermione," Remus mumbled.

"Oh, hello Remus," Hermione looked down at her food.

Sirius mumbled a 'hello' as well.

Hermione merely nodded her head in acknowledgment. The witch then kicked Lily in the shins to get her attention. When Lily scowled at Hermione, the teen pleadingly looked at her friend and mouthed 'help'.

"So, er- Hermione, I-" Remus was cut off Lily.

"Oh I completely forgot. Hermione, we've got to get that thing for McGonagall," Lily said while getting up from the bench.

Hermione immediately stood up and replied, "At the library, right?"

"Absolutely," Lily said while she started to head out of the Great Hall.

The two girls quickly walked out to the hallways, leaving four very bewildered boys.

"I wonder what McGonagall wanted," Peter muttered.

"I highly doubt McGonagall needed something," Remus replied.

"That was probably a ruse to get away from us," Sirius sighed.

"Thanks guys," James chastised his two friends. "But now that they are both gone... could you fill me in on what's happening? It's killing me."

Sirius and Remus rolled their eyes.

"We might as well, I mean, we also have to figure out how this is going to work," Sirius said. "James might be able to help."

"I suppose," Remus shrugged.

"Excellent," James rubbed his hands together.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hermione and Lily started to walk aimlessly around the castle.

"Don't tell me that was your plan," Hermione said.

"Nope," Lily laughed. "That was half of the plan. The second part is going to the kitchen to finish our dinner because I'm still starving."

"You know, this isn't really helping the situation."

"Yes I'm aware that it isn't, but at the moment it seemed like a good idea."

"It _is_ better than sitting at dinner awkwardly..."

"See, everything's okay for now," Lily smiled brightly.

"Yea, but what's going to happen for the next few days?"

"We'll just have to improvise," Lily shrugged.

"Great."

* * *

**So that got a little complicated, hm? But Sirius finally made a move on Hermione though. Oh, and so... I realized that Solstice actually occurs during the months of June and December. Sigh... apparently I mistook Solstice for Equinox [months: March/September]. Argh. Rather than going back and changing everything and confusing all of you, let's say that Solstice occurred for Hermione during September.  
**

**WELL...Thanks to those who reviewed for Chapter 2! But I would like to specifically thank Mauseengel for giving me an extremely helpful review to improve my writing. I really appreciate it.**

**As for when Regulus Black will make an appearance: He will! So don't worry classicmovielover, I'm just trying to think of some good situations that would introduce him into the story. **

**For those who also thought that movie Sirius Black and Remus Lupin weren't what they expected: I'm going to have to say that Michael Vartan is the perfect Remus Lupin and Hugh Jackman for Sirius Black. Okay, before everyone furiously types out to refute my pick for Sirius... google image Hugh Jackman. You see the pictures him with long hair? Yea. Mmm. Most definitely my older Sirius Black. **

**Anyway, thanks for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed? And if there are any glaring grammatical errors, my apologies. I probably should get a beta-reader. Admittedly, I was an editor for my school newspaper and will be the co-editor in chief next year... but that definitely does NOT mean that I will catch every single thing. So... _WANTED_****: Beta-reader.  
**

**-Susie  
**


	4. Don't Even Miss Me

**DISCLAIMER: The Harry Potter franchise absolutely does not belong to me. The only thing that does is this plot. Oh, and the lyrics belong to [in order of appearance]: All Time Low and Voxtrot.  
**

**

* * *

****Chapter 4 – Don't Even Miss Me**

After Hermione and Lily were able to replenish themselves of the meal that was abruptly taken away from them, they headed back to the Common Room. The girls were talking about school, until the Hermione brought the subject up of Time Solstice.

"Lily, I have to tell you something," Hermione started out.

"You like Sirius! No, wait, you like Remus!" Lily blurted.

Hermione glared at Lily before saying, "I wanted to tell you that I've found a book on Time Solstice today. It's interesting, and it might get me back home."

The witch waited for her friend to say something. When Lily kept her mouth shut, Hermione said, "Lily, you know I have to go back, right?"

Lily huffed and whispered, "Hermione, as much as I know that you have to leave, I really don't want you to. Sad to admit, but you're probably the closest friend that I've ever had. Besides, what about Sirius and Remus?"

"They've lived 17 years of their lives without me, I'm sure they're going to be fine."

"You're not trying to run away from them are you," Lily teased.

"Yes, Lily you caught me; that was actually my plan all along. Forgetting about my old life and starting a new one here is what I'm striving for now," Hermione sarcastically replied.

"I don't understand how Remus and Sirius like you when you're so sarcastic like this," Lily teased.

"Mention their names one more time and I guarantee you that I will hex you," Hermione threatened.

"Oh you just ruin all the fun."

When Lily and Hermione walked inside the Gryffindor's common room, Lily paused and squinted her eyes to gaze at someone.

"Is that..." Lily started to say.

"Lily!" James bounded down the stairs from the boys dormitory, "I have to talk to you, right now."

"I guess I'll see you later, Hermione," Lily called back while her boyfriend grabbed her hand and led her upstairs quickly.

Hermione just shrugged her shoulders and started to walk upstairs as well, but a voice stopped her.

"Hermione, we need to talk to you," the unmistakable voice of Remus Lupin resounded in the room.

The witch quickly turned around to find Sirius and Remus sitting on two separate chairs near the fireplace. She hesitantly walked towards them while quickly thinking of all the reasons why they might want to talk to her. What stood out the most was that they were going to talk to her about the current situation.

Hermione stood in front of them, waiting for the two to talk.

"You could sit down if you want. It might take a long time explaining," Sirius said.

Hermione sat down on the opposite couch that was located in front of them. She placed her hand on her lap and gave them a questioning look. Remus hesitantly looked at Sirius who nodded in encouragement.

"Erm-well, I-we want to apologize for our actions for the past few days. We didn't mean to come onto you so ... forcefully."

Hermione smiled at Remus' polite manners. If only she could erase the thoughts of his lips touching hers.

"Yea I mean... I was being a completely barbaric git. Why don't we start over, hm?" Sirius asked.

Hermione was silent, leaving the two boys think miserable thoughts of rejection.

_'What if she doesn't want to do anything with me?' _Sirius thought to himself quickly.

_'She probably hates me...'_ Remus groaned inside of his head.

"Sure," the witch sighed.

Both heads immediately shot up.

"Are you sure," Remus hesitantly asked.

"Yes," Hermione laughed, she got up from the couch and walked over to the two of them.

She leaned in to give Sirius a peck on the cheek and hugged him, did the same for Remus and sat down in between them.

"But er-," Hermione looked around the empty common room, "where is everyone?"

The two boys gave her sheepish smiles, "You could say we rented it for awhile so we could have privacy, you know, to talk to you?"

Remus started to explain, "Sirius told them that we were going to test a new prank. As long as it involves Sirius and something to do with pranks, they are out of the room."

"Hey Pads! Can we all come downstairs now?" James called out from the boys' dorm.

"Yeah! Come on down, all of you!" Sirius yelled.

Suddenly, all the Gryffindors rushed downstairs and went on with their own business. Remus, Hermione, and Sirius still sat where they were, while the other three friends started to walk towards them.

"Hermione, sorry that I couldn't come down and get you, James was holding on to me and-" Lily had bright red cheeks and she was trying to catch her breath.

James wrapped his arms around an invisible person and started to make-out with it.

Lily was completely oblivious until Sirius started making kissing noises.

"Sirius, stop being an immature brat," Lily sniffed.

"Lily Evans," Sirius mimicked the witch, "you should take a look at your boyfriend.

When she looked to her side and realized what James was doing, she swatted him on the shoulder. James merely smiled broadly and wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's waist.

Hermione softly laughed to herself.

"Oh, Hermione, did Sirius tell you?" James asked.

"Tell me... what?" Hermione looked at Sirius curiously.

Sirius looked down and mumbled something incoherent.

Hermione looked back at James who gave her a sigh.

"Come on you big coward, tell her," James prodded his best friend on the shoulder.

Sirius exhaled and rolled his eyes, "Fine."

Hermione looked at Sirius with interest, "Go on."

"Madam Rosmerta, the pub lady, is letting me play at The Three Broomsticks at Hogsmeade in two weeks," Sirius said while still looking down, but this time he was smiling.

"When did this happen?" Hermione asked.

Sirius rubbed the back of his head, "Well, she promised last year that she'd let me play a few songs and she owled me yesterday saying if I was still planning on doing it."

"Are you excited?" Hermione asked.

"Are you kidding?" James exclaimed. "He was in tears yesterday when he got the letter."

"Crying?" Hermione laughed.

Sirius glared at James.

"No, not crying. He's exaggerating. Actually, he's lying his arse off."

"Right," Hermione smiled.

"Are you doubting me?" Sirius smiled with a hint of mischief in his eyes.

"And what if I am?" Hermione refuted.

"Well," Sirius sighed, "I'm just going to have to tickle you mercilessly until you believe me."

"Wait, wha-"

Sirius didn't give Hermione the time to finish her sentence. He immediately tackled her sides which inevitably caused both of them to fall on the floor.

Gasping for air, Hermione quickly shouted, "Okay! I believe you!"

Sirius, on top of the worn-out girl, replied with a wolfish grin, "Good."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Two weeks passed by, leading into the month of November, and luckily, Sirius, Remus, and Hermione were getting along fine. Hermione's research, on the other hand, was going nowhere; many texts were vague on the topic. The one particular book about the topic itself was indeed helpful, but it was better for referencing rather than learning in-depth knowledge.

However, while the search was futile, Hermione had formed deeper relationships with the six friends much to her dismay.

And now, today was the day that some of Hogwart's students were able to travel to Hogsmeade. Not only that, but today was also the day that Sirius would be performing at The Three Broomsticks.

An hour before the students were to depart, the girls' dormitory was in complete shambles. It probably could be compared to the messiness of the boys' dormitory and soundly defeat them.

Hermione and Lily were also throwing out all the clothing they could possibly have. Well, Hermione actually assisted Lily since Hermione didn't have any clothes for that matter.

"You know, this is pretty ridiculous," Lily huffed. "I'm tempted to just go in the nude if this is really proving to be too difficult."

"Be my guest," Hermione laughed. "I'm sure James would appreciate it... as would the entire male population of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade combined."

Lily scowled.

"You shouldn't be talking," Lily said. "I'm fine with clothes... it's you that's the problem. You don't have any at all."

This was correct. Hermione had been waiting for the Hogsmeade trip to buy clothes. In the meantime, during the weekends, Lily had been allowing her friend to borrow some of her clothes.

"Lily, just give me something comfortable and warm," Hermione asked.

"You are so lucky that I'm not like all the other girls in this dorm. If you were stuck with Jessica over there," Lily nodded her head towards a rather promiscuous dressed girl, "you would probably be stuck with massive high heels and some micro mini."

"But I have you," Hermione grinned. "Thanks."

Lily handed Hermione a pair of jeans, a white blouse, and a black cropped trench coat.

"Unfortunately, I will have to give you a pair of heels," Lily frowned. "But before you complain, I'm going to tell you that these heels are incredibly comfortable."

The witch held the black round-toe high heels at Hermione who examined them. Hermione approximated two inches on the heel and actually did think that the shoes were cute. The only distinguishing characteristic on the shoes was the scrunched up overlay design that resembled much like a bow.

"These don't look too dreadful," Hermione mumbled. "Anyway, thanks for the clothes. I promise you that this will be the last day that I'll borrow from you... maybe."

Once the two girls finally finished dressing up, they ran downstairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter were waiting for them. However, Hermione's attention was immediately directed towards Sirius and his black guitar case. Although he was only dressed in a snug black button-up shirt and jeans, Hermione couldn't help but think that he looked incredibly attractive. Of course, the witch immediately chastised herself for thinking such thoughts. Unfortunately in doing so, she missed the last step of the staircase.

"Are you okay?" Remus looked down at Hermione, whose face was buried in his chest.

Hermione merely nodded and pried herself away from him. She was about to head over to Lily, but she was too busy talking to James.

With a sigh, she started to walk out of the common area. It was only a matter of seconds before Sirius bounded over to her.

"Hey Hermione," Sirius said with a smile.

"Hello," the witch looked to her side and returned his smile.

"So are you excited about going to Hogsmeade?" Sirius asked while shoving his hands his hands in his front pocket.

"I suppose. I'm curious about what I'll see there," Hermione lied.

"Well, it's a small town. Nothing much to do but better than being cooped up here at Hogwarts," Sirius replied. He then added, "Other than watching me perform, what do you plan on doing?"

"What makes you so sure that I'm going to watch you?" Hermione teased.

"Because it's just... given? There was an understanding that all five of you would come and watch me play," Sirius said.

"Really? Are you sure about that?"

"I... think so?" Sirius started to question himself. "Wait. What else do you have to do that's so important than watching me play?"

"Way to sound extremely conceited Sirius," Hermione laughed.

"You know what I mean," he huffed.

Hermione shrugged but answered, "Lily said she was going to take me shopping."

"Bleh," Sirius face contorted into disgust.

"See," Hermione said, "far more important than watching you play."

Sirius stopped and grabbed Hermione's wrist and turned her around to face him.

"But it would mean the world to me if you came..."

Hermione looked to the side, far too embarrassed to look at him in the eye.

"What if I came shopping with you after I play a few songs? But only if you guarantee that you'll come and see me for the whole time I'm playing," Sirius stubbornly refused to give up.

"And if I don't want you to come?" Hermione asked with a coy smile. For some reason, she found pleasure and entertainment in teasing Sirius.

"Woman, just say yes or no!" Sirius groaned.

Hermione erupted in laughter.

"No! Laughing is not acceptable either," Sirius stomped his foot.

"Fine Sirius," Hermione continued to laugh, "I'll come and watch. But I'm not going to promise you any fun while we're shopping."

Sirius' face, which had been synonymous to a petulant child, immediately lit up.

"Anything's fun if I'm there," Sirius winked.

The witch rolled her eyes and continued to walk.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Once all the Hogwart's students arrived at Hogsmeade, Sirius started bouncing up and down.

"Are you ready?" James laughed.

"You bet," Sirius confidently replied while puffing his chest out. "I'm ready for anything."

Remus, however, thwacked his friend, causing for Sirius to gasp for air and nearly dropping his guitar.

"What was that for?" the wizard scowled.

"I thought you said you were ready for anything," Remus smirked.

"You git," Sirius muttered.

"Idiots," Lily didn't even bother covering her obvious distaste.

"Oh come off it, Lils," James poked his girlfriend on the side.

"Well, Hermione and I are going to go shopping," Lily shrugged off James and looped her arm with Hermione's.

"I don't think so," Sirius said while grabbing Hermione's other arm before Lily could pull her away.

Lily tugged Hermione's arm slightly, "Sirius Black, we are not interested in you playing your guitar."

"You may not, but Hermione promised," Sirius replied.

Lily looked at the other witch questioningly.

Hermione shrugged, "It was kind of forced upon."

"Yea, besides Lily, James will be there so you'd still have fun," Sirius winked.

"Ugh, don't wink at me Sirius Black," Lily scrunched up her face.

"Come on Lils," James gently prodded his girlfriend on the side.

The witch didn't say anything for awhile, but then finally gave in with a sigh.

"I guess we all will be there," Lily told Sirius.

In response, he punched his fist into the air and exclaimed, "Yes!"

"Don't you need to go and talk to Rosmerta though?" Remus told his friend. "You told me earlier that she wanted you to be there a few minutes earlier."

Sirius slapped his palm to his forehead, "That's right."

"As expected, Sirius Black would forget his promises," Lily joked.

"You know James... sometimes I don't understand why you chose her out of all the broads at our school."

"Broads!?" Lily exclaimed.

Before Lily could harass the teen any more, Sirius bounded off to The Three Broomsticks and yelled out, "Wish me luck!"

"I swear James, I don't care if he's your friend or not, I will murder him one day!" Lily let out a frustrated groan.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh at her friend but stopped when she felt someone graze against her arm.

"Hey, Hermione, want to go and grab some seats?" Remus asked.

The witch smiled and nodded. In response, Remus grabbed Hermione's hand and started pulling her towards the pub.

"Remus, I-"

"I know," he sighed but gave her a smile, "but just this once, please?"

She hesitated for a bit, but decided to go along with it. After all, he said just this once, right?

As Remus and Hermione entered the already crowded pub, they pushed their way to a spot closest to a make-shift stage, which basically consisted of a three-legged wooden stool, that was set up near the bar.

The two quickly garnered three more seats for their friends and immediately sat down. When Lily, James, and Peter came to sit with them as well, Hermione realized that Remus was still holding onto her hand.

"Remus..." Hermione murmured while tugging her hand away from him.

Although Hermione literally tried yanking her hand back, Remus kept a firm grip on her.

"Hermione!"

The witch looked up to find a smiling Sirius. Seeing him so close to her made her fidget uncomfortably. The only thought running through her mind was if hope that Sirius see her and Remus holding hands only because she didn't want anymore conflict not because she was afraid that Sirius might get the wrong idea. Of course not that.

"H-hey Sirius," Hermione hesitantly smiled.

He rubbed the back of his head, a common trait, and smiled sheepishly, "Rosmerta wants me to play a few songs. I think I'll just play three or so. Not too much you know since we've got that date."

Sirius winked which caused for Remus to squeeze Hermione's hand. The witch held her grimace, and merely nodded. When Sirius left, Hermione pulled her hand back once more. This time, Remus let go.

Before Hermione could say something to Remus, Sirius sat on his wooden stool and pressed his wand to his throat. He murmured a sonorous charm and cleared his throat.

"Hullo everyone! This is Sirius Black and I am here to entertain you with this magnificent guitar. Now, I promise I won't cause ears to strain or even bleed, so it would mean everything if everyone would listen," Sirius smiled. "And don't worry, I'll only play three songs."

Sirius sighed and said, "This goes out to a very special girl."

With that, Sirius winked at Hermione and began strumming his guitar.

"_He woke up from dreaming and put on his shoes,_

_Started making his way past two in the morning,_

_He hasn't been sober for days..."_

Hermione, completely red in the face, merely sat there enraptured by Sirius' performance.

"_Forgive me, I'm trying to find,_

_My calling, I'm calling at night._

_I don't mean to be a bother, but have you seen this girl?_

_She's been running through my dreams,_

_And it's driving me crazy it seems." _

The witch felt someone kick her leg on her left. She looked to the side for a second to find Lily snickering.

Lily leaned in and said, "Well, isn't he blunt about his feelings."

Hermione furiously blushed and looked down for a second, but couldn't help but to look back up to look at Sirius.

"_And even though she doesn't believe in love,_

_He's determined to call her bluff. _

_Who could deny these butterflies?  
They're filling his gut." _

As Sirius continued singing, millions of thoughts ran through Hermione's mind.

'_Are these just lyrics or is Lily right?' _

The next song was about unrequited love as well.

"_This time of night I could call you up._

_I'd get angry with athletic ease, break common laws in twos and threes._

_If I die clutching your photograph,_

_Don't call me boring, it's just cause I like you." _

"Told you," Lily said while prodding her finger into Hermione's shoulder.

Hermione didn't do anything but just sit and watch.

"_Come by and see me, I'm a love letter away._

_I'd break your name before I'd say, "I really love you, love you."  
I don't care if you saw, I watched every inch of film_

_Flash across your Roman features. _

_And I loved it, loved; I don't care if..." _

Soon Sirius finished his rather short three song set. Fortunately for Hermione, the last song wasn't about unrequited love.

The crowd at The Three Broomsticks wasn't overly enthusiastic, but it didn't mind Sirius either. However, most of the applause came from the Marauders, Lily, and Hermione, although some were also coming from over enthusiastic girls.

"Sirius you were amazing!" a girl shrieked.

Hermione stifled in laughters.

"I LOVE YOU!" another exclaimed.

The witch looked up and glanced towards Lily who shrugged in response.

"Daily occurrence," Lily off-handedly said, then added, "You'll get used to it though."

Of course Hermione realized that Sirius Black was admired by the majority of the female and some male population of Hogwarts but the idea of 'getting used to it' seemed strange to her for some reason.

"Right," Hermione half-heartedly smiled.

Remus nudged the witch gently on her side with his elbow, "Do you want some butterbeer?"

"Oh?" Hermione looked up, "yea, sure. That would be nice."

As the witch gazed off into nothing in quite particular, Sirius slowly crept towards her.

"Hermione," Sirius leaned in and whispered into her ear.

The girl immediately jumped up from her seat and blushed from head to toe.

"Do you find amusement in scaring me every time you see me?"

Sirius acted as though he was thinking heavily about this and nodded with a grin, "Yea, something like that."

"You are insufferable," Hermione huffed. "Lily was right about you."

"Oh, really now?" Sirius inquired while raising his eyebrows.

Hermione nodded, "It's just a shame that you didn't prove her wrong."

The boy was quiet for a few seconds, seriously thinking about what to say next, then replied, "Well, if I gave you another chance to change your mind, would you take it?"

The witch laughed, "If _you_ gave _me_ another chance?"

Sirius nodded.

"You better hurry then," Hermione continued to laugh.

With that, Sirius grabbed Hermione's hand and led her out of the pub. As they were walking to some unknown destination, Hermione couldn't help but asking where they were heading.

"It's a surprise."

But when she noticed that Sirius was taking her towards the outskirts of the town, Hermione asked, "We aren't going to the Shrieking Shack are we?"

"One, why would I take you there, it's a miserable place. And two, how do you know about the Shack if you've never been to Hogsmeade before?"

"Er- I read about Hogsmeade in a book from the library and it talked about the sites that were close to Hogsmeade," Hermione quickly made up an excuse.

"Ah, you would read something about that, wouldn't you," Sirius chuckled.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Sirius grinned.

"Really though Sirius, where are we going?" Hermione asked while she heard the faint sound of rushing water.

"I'll show you as soon as you close your eyes," Sirius commanded.

"You won't do anything irrational, right?"

"That, I cannot promise you."

"...fine."

As soon as Hermione closed her eyes, Sirius stood behind her and gently placed his hands over her closed lids.

"Just in case you decide to peek," Sirius whispered.

Hermione merely scoffed.

Sirius continued to lead Hermione into an unknown destination but the sound of water consistently grew louder.

"Now..." Sirius said while he started to open his hands, "here we are."

Hermione immediately saw beautiful white crocuses surrounding the bases of several trees. Other than the flowers, there were few boulders but resting in the middle of the forest, there was a small creek with gently flowing water.

The witch, trying to take in everything, slowly twirled around in circles.

When she stopped spinning, Hermione smiled and said, "Sirius, this place is incredibly beautiful. How did you find it?"

"Just stumbled across it one day last year," Sirius shrugged. He then sat on one of the large boulders and gave the empty spot beside him a pat. "Come over here."

Hermione cautiously walked towards him and gave him a questioning look, instead of sitting next to him, she stood.

"I'm not going to bite," the ebony haired Gryffindor playfully joked while smiling. "And I'd like to tell you something."

"Please," Sirius gave his well known puppy dog face.

Without a word, Hermione sat down next to Sirius and waited expectantly.

Sirius sighed and then said, "I know that the past few weeks have been slightly uncomfortable, especially with the situation between you, Remus and me. Although Remus and I agreed to just let everything go, I just... there seems to be complications in doing so."

"Sirius..."

"Before you just downright deny me right now, just let me offer you a proposition."

Hermione simply nodded.

"Well other than stating the obvious yet again, I'm wondering if you could just give me a chance. By that, meaning if you could just allow for one date."

"A date?"

"Yes, just one... well, I mean, if you want more than one, I'd happily go on more, but for now, just one," Sirius quickly replied.

Hermione awkwardly laughed.

"So...?"

"I... guess that's okay," Hermione murmured.

Sirius let out a breath of relief.

"But, would you going shopping with me count as a date?"

Jokingly, Sirius remarked, "Are you trying to get rid of me as quickly as you can?"

"I wasn't-no-I"

"Hermione, I'm kidding," Sirius laughed. "Well, if you want us to go on a date this afternoon, I am completely for it. However, I would prefer for you to give me a few more hours to concoct the perfect date."

"How about I go shopping with Lily and we can have this... thing afterwards."

"Meet me at The Three Broomsticks around three thirty then?"

Hermione nodded, "That sounds great."

"Well, we should get back; the others might think that I kidnapped you or something," Sirius barked out a laugh.

"Right," Hermione said while walking towards what she thought was Hogsmeade.

"You're actually going the opposite way," Sirius stopped Hermione and pointed behind him.

"I knew that..." she muttered under her breath. Hermione kept walking but stopped when Sirius didn't follow. "Aren't you coming?"

"Well, this is a perfect spot for me to think of that genius date," Sirius smiled.

"So you just want me to go back by myself?"

"You're a big girl, I think you can handle it," he smirked.

"Okay," Hermione shrugged, "but if I get lost and don't show up later, just know that I'm still in the forest."

"Tell James and Remus that I'll be back soon," he called out to Hermione.

She didn't turn around. _'I can't believe he's just leaving me to go back to Hogsmeade by myself...'_

Hermione furiously stomped back towards Hogsmeade, but she didn't exactly look where she was going. When she noticed that she was near a cliff, she realized that she was nowhere near Hogsmeade.

"I definitely don't think this is the way back," Hermione said aloud while looking around her surroundings.

Back near the stream, Sirius laughed and headed off to find Hermione. However, as he grew closer to getting into Hogsmeade, he noticed that the only tracks leading out of the forest were the ones that him and Hermione made coming in.

'_She didn't really get lost did she?'_ Sirius thought.

"HELP!"

Sirius immediately looked towards the direction of the scream. It was Hermione.

"Please, someone help!"

Without thinking, Sirius transformed into his Animaigus form, grabbed his clothes with his mouth and bounded off to find Hermione.

* * *

**Ah, sorry for the lateness... I've been incredibly busy and my laptop was nowhere near me. I was preparing for my volleyball tryouts at Emory for the past four days and just got back on Saturday. **

**Oh, and just in case you were wondering what the titles of the songs were... "Remembering Sunday" : All Time Low and "The Start of Something" : Voxtrot. Seriously though, Voxtrot is probably one of the best bands I've heard. Definitely check them out. **

**Side note: I recently watched Sense and Sensibility with Alan Rickman in it. At first it was kind of weird because all I could see was Snape, but once I got over that, I've decided that Alan Rickman looked quite dashing with his cravat and breeches. Besides, Colonel Brandon is just awesome to begin with. **

**Anyway, thanks for reading!**

**Susie  
**


	5. Something Happened to My Heart

**DISCLAIMER: NONE OF THE HARRY POTTER CHARACTERS BELONG TO ME.****

* * *

****Chapter 5: Something Happened to My Heart**

While Sirius was searching for Hermione, the witch was slowly being cornered by a pack of large ebony colored wolves. As Hermione edged towards the cliff, she tried to grasp her wand but her trembling fingers fumbled and caused for her wand to drop on the ground.

"Oh bugger," Hermione muttered while eyeing the wolves carefully.

She cautiously knelt down to reach for her wand but abruptly stopped when what Hermione presumed to be the alpha of the wolf pack ferociously growled at her.

Hermione immediately raised her hands and shuffled away from them but found that the edge of the cliff was literally an inch away from her.

As the witch was still in a helpless position, Sirius grew anxious when he no longer heard Hermione's pleas for help.

"_Hermione, where are you?" _Sirius thought as he ran through the woods.

However, he soon heard Hermione cry out his name, he bounded off into a direction where he thought she was at. Luckily, he was correct.

Stealthily, Sirius surveyed the scene in order to figure out the best means of attack. However, this period of thinking only lasted for merely five seconds. The only thing he needed to know was that he was up against wolves. Without hesitation and a plan, Sirius collided into the pack.

When Hermione noticed a blur of black run across her, she immediately wondered if that might be Sirius. Her assumption proved to be correct when Sirius gave her a quick look.

The fight between Sirius and the pack of wolves didn't last long; it was over as soon as Sirius took down the grey alpha wolf. Immediately after the wolves left with their tails between their legs, Sirius couldn't help but leap towards Hermione and lick her face.

Even though Hermione was fully aware that this was Sirius, she couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortably afraid since she was near falling off the cliff. So, Hermione shuffled to the side with Sirius following close to her legs.

Although the immediate danger passed by, the one thing that still concerned Sirius was that he couldn't allow Hermione to find out that he was an Animaigus.

"_Sirius, you're an idiot," _he scolded himself, _"You should have turned back and fought those damn wolves as a human." _

Hermione wasn't sure what to do next. From the looks of it, Sirius obviously couldn't change back into himself in front of her. So instead of her just waiting around, Hermione stepped towards Sirius and knelt down. Hermione placed a hand out and beckoned towards the dog.

Sirius cocked his head to the side and blankly stared at Hermione.

"I won't hurt you," Hermione laughed.

Sirius stepped forward, cautiously licked Hermione's palm, and rubbed his head against her hand.

"Thank you," Hermione whispered.

Just as quickly as the dog had arrived, it got up and walked off into the woods. At first, Hermione thought that Sirius was leaving her to change back, however when the dog looked back at her and wouldn't budge until Hermione started to walk towards it, the witch realized that Sirius was leading her somewhere.

As Sirius led Hermione out of the forest and into Hogsmeade, he was figuring out ways to get out of this situation quickly. Fortunately, they stumbled upon his friends.

"Hermione! Where have you been?" Lily exclaimed while running up to her friend, however, she immediately stopped in her tracks when she saw the large dog.

"Shit..." James whispered and quickly looked at Remus and Peter.

"Uh... Hermione," Remus started to say, "why don't you move to the side? James, Peter and I will get that dog out of your way."

"Oh?" the witch looked down at Sirius. "Um... sure."

"James, be careful!" Lily said with a concerned expression.

"It'll be all right Lils," James gave his girlfriend a wink.

Remus walked up to the dog, bent over and muttered, "Stupid mutt."

Sirius growled slightly and bared his teeth.

"Remus don't provoke it!" Lily cried out.

"It's completely fine Lily, honestly," James attempted to calm down Lily and then looked at Sirius.

"Come on you **dog**," James said while grabbing Sirius' neck.

As James, Remus and Peter dragged Sirius the dog towards the forest, Hermione and Lily, puzzled, stood behind and watched them.

"So where were you?" Lily asked suddenly.

"Well, Sirius had to tell me something," Hermione muttered.

Lily poked her friend, "And...?"

Hermione blushed, "It was nothing."

"Doesn't seem like nothing to me," Lily huffed.

"Seriously Lily, he just asked for one date with him, that's all."

"What about Remus?"

"I –um..."

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Meanwhile in the forest, Sirius immediately transformed back into his human self behind a tree.

"You know, calling me a mutt was not appreciated," Sirius glared at Remus.

His friend shrugged, "Not my fault that you showed up as one."

"At least I don't look like some overgrown chinchilla every month," Sirius fired back.

Before either Remus or Sirius could argue any further, James stepped in and said, "So what exactly where you doing in the forest with Hermione? Quite sketchy if you ask me."

Sirius quickly threw a glance at Remus before answering, "Er... well I just wanted to talk to her for a bit."

Although Remus yearned to ask Sirius what really happened, he refrained from doing so and acted as if he was indifferent about the situation.

"Don't be like that," James slapped Sirius' arm.

"Hey man," Sirius said while still eyeing Remus, "it's just none of your concern, all right?"

"We should get back," Peter suddenly said. "Lily and Hermione are probably wondering where we are."

"Yea, they might be worried that some ridiculously strong canine mauled you three," Sirius teased.

"More like a mangy mutt," James muttered.

Without saying a word, Remus left the guys and started to head out. Right when he came out of the forest, Hermione was in mid-sentence.

"I-er..." Hermione stopped then looked at Remus. "Is everything okay?"

Remus smiled slightly and nodded.

"Where are the others?" Lily asked while peering over Remus' shoulder.

"Fear not, maiden, you're knight is here," James jumped out and gave a flamboyant bow.

"James you're an idiot," Lily quickly replied but her smile gave away her feelings.

Sirius cautiously came out of the forest behind Peter and shyly looked at Hermione.

"When did you get here?" Lily asked.

"I just got back from walking," Sirius mumbled.

"Sirius Black, did you know that when you made me leave I was cornered by a pack of wolves?" Hermione said.

"I swear I didn't mean for that to happen. I thought you could find your way out fine," Sirius apologetically said.

Hermione acted miffed, "Fortunately, some strange dog helped me instead of you. So thanks a lot."

James, Remus and Peter couldn't help but stifling in laughters.

"Strange dog?!" Sirius' voice grew alarmingly pitchy.

The witch nodded, "The dog came out of nowhere and was being quite idiotic if you ask me. It just ran into the wolves without hesitation. I mean, there were five wolves."

"Well," Sirius huffed, "if it wasn't for that 'strange dog', you could have been hurt. Maybe you should change the description of 'strange' to 'brave'."

"Regardless, where were you when I needed you?" Hermione asked.

Before Sirius could answer, Remus immediately cut in.

"Wait, you left her?" Remus asked incredulously.

"I found her, didn't I?" Sirius crossed his arms.

"Yea as a-"

James cut off his friend and smiled at Hermione, "I hear you and Lily are planning on going shopping?"

Hermione nodded but then glanced at Sirius, "I think so."

Lily, quick to notice the look Hermione was giving Sirius, asked, "Unless you planned on going with Sirius?"

"No," Sirius quickly replied with a smile, "she's not. However, come three thirty this afternoon, she will be most definitely preoccupied with me."

James, Remus, Lily, and Peter looked at Sirius with shocked expressions.

"What?" Sirius retorted, "It's just a date. Calm down."

The four incredibly surprised friends expected Hermione to say something, but the only thing that Hermione could do was feel an extraordinary amount of guilt. It didn't help that Remus looked at her as if she betrayed him, so rather than facing him, she looked down at the ground.

Remus clearly noticed Hermione's reaction and breathed out, "Right, a date."

Worried, James looked at his friend and then at Hermione.

"Let's go to Honeydukes," Peter randomly suggested.

Hermione immediately thanked the pudgy boy in her thoughts.

"How can you think of sweets at a time like this?" James asked.

"I heard they've got something new," Peter shrugged and then looked over at Hermione, "You coming?"

Hermione slightly smiled, "Of course."

As Peter left the group to head over to Honeydukes, Hermione couldn't help but feel a sense of enormous gratitude towards the boy. She too left Sirius, Remus, Lily and James to walk with Peter. Who would think that someone who despised the very man who destroyed Harry's life could actually feel grateful towards the same man?

"Thank you," Hermione muttered.

"It's nothing," Peter replied, "I just didn't want to hear anymore arguing."

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

When the six teenagers arrived at the candy store, Lily grabbed Hermione aside and told James that they were leaving.

"Without getting any candy?" James frowned.

"Honestly James, there is more to life than getting candy."

"Like what?" her boyfriend asked dumbfounded.

Before Lily could answer, Sirius cut in, "Like Quidditch."

Appalled Lily said, "You are such... such a boy!"

"Congratulations James, you're girlfriend can finally differentiate between females and males," Sirius sarcastically replied.

"Oh no, she's always had that ability. It's just you that she was confused with because of your girlish features," James countered back.

"Are you sure she just wasn't stunned by my amazing looks?"

"Sirius, you are the most self-centered, dim-witted idiot I've ever encountered," Lily huffed. She then grabbed Hermione by the arm and proceeded to lead her towards the shops around the corner.

"I guess she can't take a joke?" James looked at Sirius.

Sirius shrugged, "Guess not."

Remus merely rolled his eyes.

As Lily incoherently muttered curses at a certain wizard named Sirius Black while taking Hermione inside a random clothing store, Hermione nudged her friend.

"Lily, I think they were kidding," Hermione said.

"I don't mind that, it's just Sirius—Hermione, promise me you won't do anything rash while you're out with him later?"

Hermione laughed nervously, "What are you talking about?"

Lily scrunched her eyebrows together and looked at Hermione with concern, "Hermione, although he might appear to be ... somewhat charming, you've got to know that Sirius has a notorious reputation for being a womanizer."

"... I know," Hermione murmured.

"So what are you doing with Sirius? Forgive me for being so straight-forward, but I can't stand you considering someone who is a complete polar opposite of you. Besides, Remus and you get along so well."

Hermione didn't say anything for a bit; she merely fingered a wool skirt.

"You know Lily..." Hermione stopped and looked at her friend, "it's funny that you said that because aren't you and James far from being the same?"

Lily was unable to come back with a reply because what Hermione was saying was the truth.

"Hermione, I just don't want to see you hurt. You have no idea how many girls Sirius left with broken hearts."

"Can we just not talk about this?" Hermione said.

"Sorry Hermione, you must think I'm awful," Lily quickly apologized.

"How could I think that way when you've been the only true friend I have here?"

"Thanks," Lily brightly smiled and hugged her friend. "Well, get ready Hermione, we're going to tear down the next few stores."

For the next few hours, Lily had made Hermione try on ridiculous amounts of clothing, but fortunately, Hogsmeade did not have a wide selection of stores so the shopping trip ended earlier than expected.

"Lily, I don't think I'm going to be able to walk," Hermione laughed.

"Oh, don't be a baby," Lily scolded.

"Says the girl who didn't try on one thing," Hermione replied.

Lily sniffed, "I'm not the one in need of clothes."

"Very true..."

"So, it's two thirty," Lily suddenly grew quiet, "What do you want to do before going off on that date with Sirius?"

"Relax."

"Hermione—"

"And by relaxing, I mean talking about something other than Sirius and Remus," Hermione quickly added.

Lily smiled, "Fine."

While Hermione and Lily were shopping, Sirius, Remus, James and Peter were perusing the other stores around Hogsmeade.

"So what are you planning on doing with Hermione?" James cautiously asked while eyeing Remus.

"I don't know... take her flying? Eat food?"

Remus scoffed to himself; if he had a date with Hermione, he would do everything he could to make that date special.

"Oh..." James nodded while noticing a peculiar instrument inside a store.

"From the way you're describing it, it would seem that this date would last only an hour," Remus teased.

"It probably could, but I'll do everything I can to keep her with me," Sirius said.

The double meaning couldn't be anymore obvious.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

For the past hour, Hermione couldn't help but fidgeting around and looking around for clocks. It wasn't that she was anticipating the date with Sirius, well... she actually wasn't even sure how she felt. Excited? Terrified? Embarrassed? Several questions such as these raced through her mind while Lily merely pestered her about how Sirius was a bad choice for a male companion even though she had promised Hermione earlier that they wouldn't talk about this.

"Lily, what on earth has Sirius done to you to deserve such reprimand?" Hermione finally asked.

"Well, just the fact that he has no respect for basically anyone and also... because Remus definitely has fallen for you," Lily replied. "Although many girls have desired to call Remus their boyfriend, it was quite impossible seeing as how Remus refused every single one of them. But this time, when he finally meets someone he truly likes, she's off messing around with one of his best friends."

"I am _**not**_ messing around with Sirius Black," Hermione firmly said.

Lily shrugged, "It could happen."

"Do you honestly think that I would do something reckless as that?"

"I wouldn't know, I mean, you've already snogged him. Besides, didn't you say that you had a crush on him when you were young?"

"Lily Evans!"

"I only speak the truth," Lily smiled.

Letting out a frustrated groan, Hermione rolled her eyes and started to head towards The Three Broomsticks.

"Where are you going?" Lily asked while trailing behind her friend.

"To go meet the very man you detest."

"I don't detest him, his actions are just unforgivable," the witch sniffed.

"And what if I do like him," Hermione suddenly asked, "What then? Would you not talk to me?"

"Well, the entire female student population at Hogwarts would refuse to speak to you," Lily smartly replied. "However, I probably would still talk to you... for pity's sake."

"Oh, you are so incredibly generous."

"I know," Lily laughed, then added on serious note, "But if it did come down to you liking Sirius Black and if he treated you properly, I might be able to forgive his peculiar personality."

When Sirius identified both Hermione and Lily, he strode up to them and said, "And so the lady of the hour finally decides to show twenty minutes late past the appointed time."

"Black, what on earth are you talking about? Clearly, its three fifteen," Lily smartly said while pointing at her watch hanging from her wrist.

"Oh?" Sirius said while peering over at her watch, "then it must also be September 21st, but I recall that was two weeks ago."

Lily immediately flushed red from embarrassment.

Before anyone else could say anything else, Sirius quickly wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist and said, "Well, I believe Hermione and I will see all of you much later."

Sirius then proceeded to quickly lead Hermione away from their friends but noticed the shocked expression on the witch's face.

"I was only kidding," Sirius grinned. "You'll be safely sleeping in your dorm by midnight, I promise."

"But its three thirty right now."

"False. It is actually near four o'clock, but what of it?"

"I'll be with you for the next 8-9 hours?" Hermione asked.

"What's wrong with that?" Sirius laughed.

When Hermione didn't say anything, Sirius replied jokingly, "I'm offended. You look as though you are about to face death."

"Might as well," Hermione teased.

"Cheeky," he smiled.

"So what exactly are we doing?" the witch asked as shifted her body away from Sirius.

Sirius raised an eyebrow when he noticed Hermione leaving his side. "I don't plan on biting you, you know."

Hermione blushed but didn't say anything.

The boy sighed at the lack of response, "Well, you're just going to have to find out."

The two continued to walk in silence, when Hermione noticed that they were walking back to Hogwarts.

"Are you taking me back to Hogwarts?" she asked.

"Well...yes. Is that an issue?"

"Er-no, I was just wondering..."

Sirius sighed yet again, "Is something the matter?"

"What are you talking about?" Hermione quickly asked.

"Did Lily say something."

Hermione looked down.

"Ah, so she did. I'm not surprised."

"It's not that I think you're a horrible person, Sirius, it's just—"

"Hermione," Sirius cut in, "I would never intentionally hurt you or any other girl. Although what Lily told you might have been true in some aspects, most of the stories have been fabricated in some way. As for my reputation as a so-called womanizer, well, have you seen me constantly wooing women from the few months that you've known me?"

"... no."

"So before you decide to quickly judge my character, give me a chance to show you who I really am."

Hermione stifled in laughters.

"What?" Sirius asked bewildered.

"It's just what you just said was incredibly cliché," Hermione laughed.

Sirius didn't know how to respond.

"Please don't take offense to that, though," Hermione immediately stopped laughing when Sirius wouldn't say anything. "Sirius, I hadn't planned on judging you outright, I'm just nervous because, well... just because."

"I knew it was because of my looks, not what Lily said," Sirius joked.

Hermione rolled her eyes and playfully hit Sirius on the arm. However, before Hermione let her hand down, Sirius swiftly caught it and held onto her hand tightly so that she couldn't slip away from him again.

"Sirius..."

"Just this once," Sirius smiled, "besides, this is a legitimate date. I would think that holding hands is absolutely required."

The witch attempted to pull her hand away but stopped when Sirius swiftly raised her hand to his lips. Gently kissing her hand, he gave her a smile.

Hermione blushed and turned to look away.

"Come on," Sirius laughed, "I've got a surprise for you."

Once the two were on Hogwart's grounds, Sirius took out his wand and called for his broom. When his broomstick whizzed out of a window towards Sirius, he asked, "You've flown on a broomstick, right?"

Hermione bit her lower lip, "Well..."

"Don't tell me that you've never done it before," Sirius asked flabbergasted while he quickly grabbed his broom.

"No, it's not that... I've ridden once but I was awful," Hermione said while walking away from the broom.

"Oh no you don't," Sirius said while quickly getting on his broom and flying over to Hermione.

As Sirius floated in front of Hermione, he pleaded for her to get on.

"Sirius, I wasn't kidding," the witch firmly said.

"Just once."

"Will you be saying that all day?" Hermione couldn't help but grin.

Sirius vigorously shook his head in agreement, "Yes. And now, I'm afraid you don't have any choice but to get on."

Before getting her consent, Sirius pulled Hermione onto the broom. Looking over his shoulder, he promptly said, "You might want to hold on."

With that, Sirius swiftly flew up into the skies with a screaming Hermione.

"SIRIUS! PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" Hermione yelled with eyes clenched shut while the arms wrapped around Sirius' torso grew tighter.

"Hermione, if you would stop worrying about falling off from an outrageously high distance and dying, you might actually enjoy this," he teased.

"YOU ARE NOT HELPING AT ALL!"

"Really though Hermione, could you loosen up on your grip there, it's getting a little hard to breathe," Sirius said.

"Sorry!" Hermione cried out while relaxing her arms a little, although, her face was still burrowed into Sirius' back.

Laughing, Sirius replied, "You know, I think I'm just going to have to take you flying all the time if this is the only way that you'll feel comfortable this close to me."

"Like I'm going to get on this broom again," Hermione scoffed.

"Well Hermione, if you could just calm down and actually realize how beautiful it is up her, you would enjoy flying so much more," Sirius replied.

Hermione sighed and unclenched her eyes. At first, she looked around to her side and thought that flying wasn't so bad, but then when she glanced down and realized how far up they were, Hermione quickly grasped harder onto Sirius' torso.

"I think it's time for us to go back down, huh?" Sirius looked over at his shoulder to glance at her.

The witch merely nodded in response.

As Sirius slowly made the broom descend when he spotted a location clear of students: the lake. Hermione's breath slowly began to even out and as soon as Sirius noticed, he couldn't help but chuckle.

When they finally made it on the ground, Hermione swiftly jumped off and laid down on the grass; she didn't even bother looking around to find out where she was.

"Did you hate it that much?" Sirius knelt down next to her and pouted.

"...Not so much the flying part, just the height," Hermione said.

"Maybe we'll go lower next time, hm?"

Hermione didn't reply, but merely thought that she should probably avoid a next time with Sirius Black. If this continued in the similar manner, Hermione felt that she would be in deep trouble with her feelings of wanting to go back home.

Sirius softly laughed and looked out into the distance, but mostly at the lake. The witch soon noticed the silence coming from a normally gregarious character so Hermione sat up and cautiously asked, "Sirius?"

The wizard in question turned his head slightly towards her and grinned, which produced a sudden hitch of breath from Hermione. This mistake was caused by noticing the playful interaction with the wind and Sirius' dark locks and just... his smile.

"Yes?"

Hermione bashfully looked to the side to cover her embarrassment and replied, "It's nothing."

"I see..." he stalled.

Sirius then suddenly grasped Hermione's left arm and turned her to face him.

"Could I ask you a question?"

The witch immediately felt a blush creep up her face as soon as she locked eyes with Sirius.

"Um, sure?"

"Can we skip the awkward first date?"

The unashamed and blatant manner of Sirius completely threw Hermione off causing her to temporarily lose her ability to form sentences.

Sirius continued, "It's painstakingly obvious that you aren't comfortable around me, so let's cut to the chase. I'm Sirius Black, age 17 with a devilishly handsome face. I don't exactly have a favorite color and my favorite animal is... well, I suppose a dog or a wolf. I enjoy playing Quidditch and as you just witnessed, flying on my broom. However, on certain occasions when I'm feeling fancy, I like reading. Did I cover everything?"

"You forgot your favorite food," Hermione smiled as she played along.

The teen slapped his hand on his forehead, "The most important thing of all and I forgot!"

"As with colors, I'm assuming you have no favorite?"

"On the contrary, love. Every type of food and color are my favorites, well... everything except that awful Slytherin green."

Hermione laughed and realized how similar Sirius was to some of her friends back at present-day Hogwarts. However, as soon as she did so, she regretted thinking about them.

"Did I say something wrong?" Sirius asked when he detected Hermione's sudden solemn face.

The witch smiled slightly and murmured, "No, I'm just thinking."

"If I may ask, of what?"

"None of your concern," Hermione teased.

"Well in that case, I think I'd rather share the food I brought with the Giant Squid," Sirius huffed and turned his back towards Hermione.

"You brought food?"

Sirius nodded, but then reached into his pocket and grabbed something incredibly miniscule. Hermione only noticed when he pulled out his wand and muttered and engorgement charm. However, rather than food, a basket appeared. Before Hermione could even ask what was in it, Sirius headed off towards the lake humming an unknown tune.

When Hermione realized that Sirius had no intentions of stopping, she raced towards him to catch up with him.

"Feeding the squid?"

"Indeed," Sirius exhaled while swinging the basket back and forth.

The two stopped walking when they reached the banks of the lake. Hermione did actually expect Sirius to pull out food from the basket and throw some in the water, but rather than that happening, he plopped down on the grass. Hermione looked down at him peculiarly while Sirius looked up grinning.

"I don't think you'd be able to throw the food that far sitting down," Hermione said.

Sirius laughed, "Did I mention that we're feeding it after we eat?"

"For some unexplainable reason, you think you're funny."

"Hm... no, I don't think, I just know," Sirius confidently replied.

"Do you realize what you just said," Hermione laughed.

Sirius thought for a moment and played back his sentence in his head and when he realized what Hermione meant, Sirius narrowed his eyes.

"Well all I know is that you are not funny," Sirius proclaimed.

Hermione innocently smiled and replied, "Did I ever say I was?" She then pointed at the basket placed next to Sirius. "So what's in there?"

"Heavenly things from Hogsmeade," Sirius replied while taking some of the items out of the basket.

As Sirius began taking out things to eat, Hermione looked out at the lake. In the midst of merely gazing, thoughts began to race about the situation between her, Remus and Sirius.

"_This is just... one date," _Hermione told herself, _"It's not as if this means that I'm choosing Sirius over Remus. However, Remus doesn't know that. Wait, what am I thinking about? Why should I care about how Remus feels about me going on a single date with Sirius?" _

The longer Hermione sat there thinking, the more confused and frustrated she became. The fact that she cared about what either Sirius or Remus would think if she chose the other person bothered her. Neither of them should be interested in her nor should she be interested in them. The only thing that should be of top priority is getting back home.

When Sirius gently prodded Hermione's arm, she was relieved of having to think about the situation for a few seconds.

Hermione, puzzled, wondered what Sirius had to say. She soon found out that it wasn't what he had to say, but rather, what he had to show her. Laid out in front of her was a fully set meal that seemed to have come from various dining places from Hogsmeade. This act was generous; far from what Hermione would have thought any guy would ever do. And yet, she couldn't accept this.

The witch got up without a word which caused for Sirius to stand as well.

"Is everything okay?" Sirius cautiously asked.

Hermione wasn't quite sure what to say. "I...—we can't do this, Sirius."

Sirius cocked his head to the side as if he didn't hear her, "Pardon?"

"This," Hermione gestured towards her and the other teenager.

"Is it because of Remus?" Sirius asked while biting back his anger. _"How could she let me believe that I actually had a chance with her when she was already set with Remus..."_

"No," she replied while looking away.

Sirius walked closer to the girl and forced Hermione to look back at him, "Don't look away when you're talking to me, you're making it impossible for me to stay calm when you do that. Now, tell me honestly, can you not do this because of Remus?"

The fact that Sirius wouldn't leave her alone bothered Hermione. Why couldn't he just accept that this wouldn't work out for her?

Hermione broke away from Sirius' arms and scowled, "Sirius that is none of your concern, but for the sake of you not tackling Remus when you see him, no it is not because of him."

"Then why won't you give it a chance?"

"Maybe because I don't want it to?!" Hermione suddenly yelled. "Maybe I just don't want to be committed right now. I'm entirely new to this environment and am stressed as is since I can't get back home. But to add on to that, I have to deal with you and Remus and making sure I don't hurt either one of you!"

Silence.

"I'm sorry," the witch said in a quieter tone and ran back inside of Hogwarts leaving a very angry yet confused Sirius Black.

In the midst of being thoroughly perplexed and flustered, the one thing that stood out in Sirius' mind was when Hermione stated that she couldn't go home.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Hermione slowed down to a walk when she got inside of Hogwarts. As she headed back upstairs, she couldn't help but feeling remorseful at how she left Sirius back at the lake and debated on whether or not she should go back to him and apologize. However, this option seemed to be impossible when Hermione accidentally ran into someone.

"Sorry," she quickly said and tried to move past the student, but was held back.

The witch stared at the hand that had firmly clasped onto her arm but then slowly looked up to see the owner of the hand.

Hermione was taken aback when she saw who the person was. The shock did not originate from the suddenness but rather the overwhelming physical similarities of the stranger and Sirius Black.

"Staring is a rude gesture, you know," the person said while smirking. "But I suppose I'll forgive you."

"You..."

"I see that not only have I stunned you by my good looks but also caused you to lose the ability to create comprehendible sentences."

"Are you—"

"Actually," the student interrupted, "now that I think about it, I think I have seen you somewhere."

He placed his index finger across his lips, supported his chin with his thumb and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Siri—"

"Ah," the stranger interrupted Hermione for the second time. "I've got it. You hang around Sirius. Don't tell me you're one of _those _girls."

"What?"

"You know, those incredibly thick-headed girls that squeal at his every move," he off-handedly replied.

"Excuse me?" Hermione scowled. "I do not 'hang around' him. It's more appropriate to say that he's the one who follows me around only because we're friends with the same people."

As if the teenager didn't hear the statement that Hermione had made about her and Sirius being mutually friends with the same people, he incredulously asked while eyeing the witch up and down, "Sirius? Follow you?"

Hermione pulled her arm away from her new 'acquaintance'.

"Don't take offense... I'm just shocked that my brother would be the one following a girl."

"What?"

"Are you deaf? You seem to be having problems hearing me."

"No, it's just, brother? What do you mean?"

The wizard raised his eyebrow, "You don't know?"

"Obviously not," Hermione rolled her eyes impatiently.

"Well aren't you hot-tempered. But if you must know, unfortunately, Sirius happens to be my older brother. A disgrace is what I should actually call him, but no matter."

"_Brother?" _Hermione thought.

"And who are you?"

"Hermione Granger," she said with much difficulty. "And yours?"

"Regulus Black."

* * *

**And there classicmovielover, Regulus Black has finally appeared! But I'm not exactly sure how to portray his personality... so, forgive my portrayal of Regulus. **

**Anyway, I'm truly sorry that this chapter sucked beyond anything. If anything didn't connect or whatever, I apologize. I've been having writer's block but it's a weird kind of writer's block. I'll spare y'all the details, but just know that much. **

**Lastly, I'm really shocked at how last week turned out. Four entertainers died [RIP: Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and Billy Mays (yes, Billy Mays was very entertaining in his obnoxious commercials)] but other than that, USA soccer team went to the finals for the FIFA Confederations Cup? WTF?! Admittedly, I really wasn't rooting for my home country, I just wanted to watch a good game.... and I did! The match was freakishly amazing. **

**So uh.. yea. That's all. Oh, wait, just kidding, I lied. **

**One last thing: Don't be shy, please review after you read. As annoying as this may sound [I'm assuming you've heard it from every single author on this site], writers love to get reviews! It keeps us going and puts us in a happy mood. To those who have done so, thank you so much. **

**Until next time-**

**Susie**


	6. Have Faith In Me

**A/N: HARRY POTTER CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME AS WELL AS THE ONE LINE FROM JANE AUSTEN'S AMAZING NOVEL 'SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.'**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Have Faith In Me**

After her encounter with Regulus Black, Hermione decided to head towards the library rather than back to the Common Room. However, instead of focusing on what she was planning on looking up at the library, the scene that had just unfolded replayed in her head.

"_Hermione Granger," she said with much difficulty. "And yours?" _

"_Regulus Black." _

_At this point, Hermione wasn't quite sure as to what she should say. _

"_I guess I'll see you around then," she said in an unsure voice. _

"_I suppose," Regulus replied and left. _

It wasn't that Hermione wasn't aware that Sirius didn't have a brother, but the sudden meeting surprised her. Hermione also couldn't help but immediately contrast the two brothers; she felt that he wasn't as handsome as his brother, but figured that his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing. Of course, this was just an assumption. Surely, though, if he knew that she was a Gryffindor, this would change.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

The witch sat in one of the aisles in the library and was clearly alone for it was a Saturday and many students tended to avoid the place like the plague on the weekends. Hermione preferred this than a bustling library. The quiet background allowed for her to focus on her research. Unfortunately, all the books about Time Solstice seemed to hold the wrong information; curiously enough, the times when a traveler could be pulled back or go to future were incredibly off.

Thoroughly frustrated, Hermione leaned against the bookshelves and closed her eyes. Only one success came out of coming from the library, and that was avoiding Sirius and Remus. She sighed in momentary satisfaction and closed her eyes.

"Hermione?"

And down the drain goes her single success.

"Hermione," Remus persisted.

"I would hate to come off as being rude, but please, if you could allow me to have some moments to myself?" Hermione whispered while her eyes were still kept shut.

"Rude? Never. Just don't mind me sitting across from you."

The witch opened her eyes in disbelief.

"I'll be as silent as the grave, I promise," Remus smiled and grabbed a book off of one of the shelves and began reading.

The girl softly sighed but disregarded Remus in front of her for a few minutes. No use.

"Remus?" Hermione murmured.

While pressing his index finger to his lips, Remus teased her by shushing her.

"Honestly," the witch huffed.

Remus set down the novel that he had pretended to be engrossed in.

"Yes?" he calmly answered.

"Why—er... how is the book?" Hermione avoided her actual question of why he was here.

"To be honest, I'm not sure. I've been reading the same sentence repeatedly for approximately ten times hoping that you would relieve me the pain of reading a mundane book sooner," Remus replied.

"Right," Hermione couldn't help but smiling now.

"Ah," Remus grinned, "and so she smiles."

"And why are you here?" she bluntly asked.

Surprised by the sudden question, Remus was speechless for a few seconds. When he regained his composure, he replied, "I should be asking you the same question. Why aren't you with Sirius?"

Hermione looked to her side to prevent Remus from noticing her embarrassment and said, "I couldn't take it."

Remus swiftly moved over to her side and asked, "Did he hurt you?"

"No, it wasn't that," Hermione reassured Remus' thoughts. "I just wasn't able to accept it, none of it."

"What... do you mean?" Remus voice slightly shook.

Remus couldn't help but feeling slightly elated. Perhaps this was Hermione's way of signifying that she was choosing him over Sirius.

"I'm not sure myself, but one thing I am certain about is that I don't even know who Sirius is nevertheless you," Hermione stated. "And hopefully you won't take offense to this, but I have far more important tasks to deal with than something as so petty as love."

Surprisingly, Remus laughed and replied, "Something as so petty as love? Hermione, you are truly a peculiar character, but I will respect you're wishes. However, that does not mean that I won't be speaking to you. I do hope that our friendship will still be intact?"

"Don't be silly," Hermione said. "Of course it will."

Remus grinned in response and allowed Hermione to get back to whatever she had been doing before he interrupted her.

"_Maybe I shouldn't have given in so easily, but if this is the way she wants it, then so be it. Her happiness is my only concern."_

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Meanwhile, back at the lake, Sirius merely sat and stared at the lake. He thought nothing but of Hermione's departing from him with an extremely puzzling explanation of not deserving this or something of that sort.

Sirius sighed; maybe he had been too forward in his advances towards her? Whatever it was, he can't do anything about it now. The only sane thing to do is to just wait rather than question her motives. Even though he knew she didn't have any ulterior motives, Sirius couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed. Hermione had seemed perfectly content with him earlier.

He wouldn't say that he was angry at Hermione, but he sure was annoyed.

Although, there was one other thing that still puzzled him. What was Hermione talking about, not being able to go back home? Could she possibly be in the same situation as he was at the moment with his parents?

One other issue bothered him as well. What was it that made him so attracted to Hermione? She isn't unbelievably good-looking. Not to say that she wasn't pretty, but she obviously has a temper, hates flying, the list goes on.

Was his attraction towards Hermione solely based on the fact that there was finally a girl who didn't immediately fall to his feet? Or simply because he wanted something that he couldn't have... Besides, it wasn't normal for him to blatantly ignore Remus' affections towards another girl. Jealousy?

Whatever it was, Sirius grew frustrated and annoyed at the issue. He huffed and threw himself backwards onto the grass.

As he gazed up at the clear sky, Sirius smiled and thought of Quidditch. That smile soon soured when he remembered Hermione's distaste for flying.

"If she hates flying, she might as well hate me," Sirius said aloud.

Sirius continued this slow process of convincing himself that he had absolutely no tangible evidence of being attracted to Hermione. Idiotic? At first Sirius believed so, but when he slowly began to realize that there truly wasn't a deep attraction towards the witch, he grew agitated and quite upset. However, the cause for such strong emotions was only because Sirius felt remorseful for the lack of sympathy towards Remus' true affections to Hermione.

"So that's that then," Sirius told himself. "No more Hermione Granger."

The teenager eventually spent the rest of the afternoon out at the lakeside thinking of nothing in particular and strangely, it felt good. When Sirius realized that it was near dinnertime, he jumped up and strode back into the castle.

When he arrived into the Great Hall, Sirius ambled over to his friends confidently and smoothly sat next to James.

"How's it going?" Sirius clapped his hand on the back of his friend's back and began piling an unhealthy portion of food onto his plate.

James nearly coughed out what he had been chewing. He coughed and replied, "Er... fine. Is everything all right with you?"

While saying this, he glanced over at a suddenly quiet Hermione.

Sirius laughed, "Of course. Nothing or nobody could possibly ruin my day."

Hermione couldn't help but flinch at Sirius' non-chalant exterior. But then again, this is so much better than the possibility of him arguing with her.

"Excellent," James said and continued eating.

"So I hear Ravenclaw's Martha Allenbeck has set her eyes on me," Sirius said to his silent friends.

Hermione, who had completely focused on eating, held her fork mid-air when she heard Sirius' statement.

"And... ?" Peter asked.

"I hear she's pretty cute. Should I give her a go?"

"Sirius Black, are you daft?" Lily asked completely appalled.

"What, for wanting to go out with a girl who actually might be interested in me?" Sirius replied. "I see absolutely no problem."

At this point, Hermione set her fork down and calmly rose from her seat. Without a word, Hermione walked out of the room with haste.

"You bastard," Remus muttered at Sirius and followed the witch out.

"What the fuck is his problem?" Sirius asked the remaining others.

"Oh, I don't know, you completely disregarding the fact that Hermione was sitting right in front of you and you being as barbaric as you usually are start talking about some girl?" Lily exploded. "I honestly thought you merely put on an appearance of being so idiotic, but now I can't help but feel that you are actually dim-witted."

"Sirius," James said uneasily, "you know you're my best mate and will go by whatever you do, but I've got to say that what you just did was incredibly unsympathetic."

"I disagree," Sirius steely replied. "I think I just did what I normally had done if I found out a girl had no interest in me whatsoever. Besides, Remus should thank me for this."

"Yea...but—"

"Just drop it. There are far better things to be concerned over, such as how we'll be doing in our match against Slytherin in the upcoming game against Slytherin," Sirius said.

As soon as Sirius had mentioned the Quidditch match, James completely forgot what had just happened which caused for an incredibly frustrated Lily Evans and a rather confused Peter Pettigrew.

Meanwhile, Remus found Hermione in the library yet again. This time, rather than reading she merely sat leaning against the shelves.

"Are you... okay?" Remus hesitantly asked while kneeling down in front of her.

Hermione forced a smile and picked up a book next to her and opened it, "Yes. Perfectly fine. I was reading."

"Upside down?"

Confused, Hermione looked at the book in her hands and realized that the book was far from being right-side up. The witch sighed, "Did you come here to tell me that you basically want nothing to do with me either? By all means, go ahead."

Remus face shifted from sympathy to anger, "How could you think that I would leave you. Did you not hear me earlier? I stick by my word, unlike..."

It grew tense between the two teenagers, but then Hermione said, "Remus, as a friend then, please just leave me alone?"

Completely disregarding Hermione's plea, Remus leaned closer to the witch and placed both of his hands on her shoulder, "Hermione. Look and listen to me. Do not concern yourself over someone like Sirius. I knew it was odd when he suddenly became cordial and actually human towards a girl, but of course he goes and ruins it with that blasted personality of his."

Hermione didn't say anything.

"Look, just forget about him. Just feel assured that things didn't go any further with him," Remus attempted to ameliorate the situation.

The witch was about to say something, but hesitated. Smiling, she finally said, "Its fine. What he said was unquestionably true, so I guess no harm done."

Remus looked at Hermione suspiciously, "Are you sure?"

"You know people have been asking me that a lot lately," she joked.

Remus sighed, ran a hand through his hair and smiled, "I suppose people are just concerned about you."

"Thanks," Hermione murmured.

"For what?"

"For caring."

"Of course," the teenage boy grinned. He then shifted over so that he would be sitting right beside Hermione.

The two Gryffindors continued to converse about sundry subjects causing Hermione to temporarily disregard what had happened between her and Sirius. However, they didn't spend too much time at the library due to Madam Pince's chastising them that "the library wasn't for socializing."

As they were walking back to the Gryffindor Common Room, Hermione cautiously mentioned Regulus Black to Remus to see if she could find out more about the mysterious character she had met earlier.

After Remus thoroughly explained the Black family and how they associated themselves with Dark Magic, Hermione mentioned that she found herself acquainted to Sirius' younger brother.

"How?" Remus frowned. "Why?"

"I literally ran into him," Hermione shrugged. "He didn't seem too awful."

"Hermione," Remus slowly said, "aside from Sirius, you really don't want to be associating yourself with the Black family; they're not the most friendly people in the Wizarding world."

"I know, it's just... Regulus can't be _that _bad."

"You don't know the Regulus that James, Sirius, Peter, and I know," Remus commented, then added, "But, it's obvious that I can't and won't try and stop you from being cordial with him."

"Oh, so should I ask for permission when I want to talk to someone new?" Hermione teased.

"No, I just—" Remus suddenly became flustered.

The witch patted her hand on his shoulder and smiled, "I was only kidding."

"Hermione, really though, be careful," Remus said.

She smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I can handle it."

The two walked into the Gryffindor Common Room to find their friends sitting near the fireplace talking in hushed tones.

"Hey Remus," Peter cheerfully said when he noticed the two figures entering the room.

The teenager nodded in return; he quickly glanced at Hermione to make sure that she was okay. Hermione didn't seem to be fazed at the fact that she was about to face Sirius, so with a sigh, Remus walked over to their friends.

Lily forced James to scoot over so that Hermione could sit next to her.

"Hermione, you can sit here," Lily patted to the spot next to her.

Before sitting down next to her friend, Hermione looked at Remus. He gave her a smile and sat down next to the only visible area that was vacant, which so happened to be next to Sirius.

Lily peeked at Hermione to see what was stopping her from sitting down. When she noticed who Hermione was looking at, Lily grabbed her friend's wrist and pulled her down.

"Hermione," she leaned over and whispered, "there's no need to even look at him."

Startled, Hermione looked at her friends curiously, "What are you talking about?"

The other witch paused, "Do you honestly still want to even associate yourself with him?"

"Oh," Hermione's expression changed from confusion to comprehension, "you're talking about Sirius."

"Of course I'm talking about that git."

"I wasn't looking at him," Hermione simply said.

"Then who were you..." Lily slowly looked over at where Sirius was sitting and noticed who Hermione had been looking at.

"Remus?" Lily exclaimed.

The boys next to them suddenly grew quiet.

"Yes Lily?" Remus asked with a bemused expression on his face.

Lily turned to face him with an astonishing red face and replied, "Um... nothing."

"Are you sure? You seem quite distressed."

"Perfectly fine," the witch assured her friend and immediately turned back around to face a snickering Hermione.

"Remus?" Lily mouthed this time.

Hermione shrugged with a mysterious smile.

As minutes flew by, the witch didn't feel as social as she usually would have been, so she excused herself and started to head towards the girls' dormitory.

Remus immediately jumped up and gently pulled Hermione's arm, stopping her from going any further.

She turned around and looked at him questionably, "Yes?"

"G'night."

"Was that all you had to say?" Hermione couldn't help but smile.

Remus let go of Hermione's arm and folded his arms across his chest; with a sheepish grin, he nodded.

"Good night to you as well."

With that, Hermione left to go upstairs. Remus returned to his friends, who were clearly eavesdropping.

"That was the sappiest thing I have ever seen from you," James joked.

Lily responded to this statement by thrusting her elbow into her boyfriend's side.

"Ow," he rubbed the sore area, "it's true though!"

Remus, however, merely shrugged and sat back down next to Sirius who had been stoic this whole time. Nothing seemed to be the matter, but Sirius calmly kept his face from shifting to annoyance.

"_There's nothing I can do now."_

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

A few days went by with nothing incredibly substantial occurring, well, beside Sirius asking that Ravenclaw girl Martha out for a date the coming weekend.

Remus, on the other hand, had been beside Hermione the entire time. They were practically attached to the hip, always conversing deeply on some topics. However, by Remus being with her constantly, Hermione was unfortunately unable to continue to pursue her research on Time Solstice.

One morning, Hermione woke up earlier than usual. Looking around the room, she realized that she was the only one up. She presumed Lily would wake up in thirty or so minutes, but Hermione didn't want to wait in bed that long.

After she quickly changed into her uniform, Hermione grabbed her belongings and decided to head down to the Common Area to read for a few minutes. However, once she got down there, she realized that the area was already preoccupied.

Sirius Black had been completely engrossed in polishing his broomstick; he had his broom kit out next to him and the musty smell of handle polish was pungent in the air.

"Great," Hermione muttered to herself and swiftly turned around to head back upstairs.

"Hermione."

The witch stopped mid-step and slowly turned back around.

"Yes?"

"Are you leaving just because I'm here?" Sirius bluntly asked.

"No, I—" Hermione stopped herself and remembered honest Sirius was with his feelings and replied without hesitation, "Yes."

Sirius exhaled deeply, "No need to sugar coat it, right?"

No answer from Hermione.

"Well, you shouldn't leave just because I'm here," Sirius said off-handedly and looked away from Hermione. "I'm assuming that you're going to read."

"You say that as if it's harmful," Hermione scoffed but cautiously walked over. She sat down on a couch that was as far away from Sirius as possible.

Sirius shrugged, "You like reading but hate flying. I love flying but detest reading."

The witch rolled her eyes and proceeded to take out her book from her bag and began reading. Sirius, on the other hand, did not continue polishing his broom, but rather sat there and looked at Hermione intently.

"I may not be bothering you, but you are most certainly bothering me, Sirius Black," Hermione said while not taking her eyes off the page.

"What are you talking about?"

"Just because I'm reading doesn't mean that I can't see things around me. Obviously you haven't heard of it, but it's called peripheral vision," Hermione replied. Before Sirius could reply, Hermione added, "Oh, but you wouldn't know that because you don't read."

Sirius looked at Hermione incredulously, "And you are a clear example of how one can be book smart but definitely not even have an ounce of common sense."

Hermione was dying to snap back, but figured that she should just keep quiet and continue reading. Maybe if she didn't respond, he won't bother her... for a few more minutes.

"You haven't been to one single game of Quidditch either," Sirius accused. "Even Lily goes to Quidditch games."

The girl sniffed, "There is no purpose in going to a match when I clearly have nobody to cheer for."

"Um, the Gryffindors."

"I have far better things to do than sitting around and watching a stupid game."

Lie. Hermione didn't mind watching the game, but obviously couldn't go, seeing as how she would be feeling remorseful the entire time. It was only sensible that she would stay as far away from the pitch as possible.

"I'm glad that I made that decision," Sirius muttered.

"Excuse me?" Hermione misheard Sirius' mumbles.

"It's actually none of your business, but if you must know," Sirius stiffly replied, "I am incredibly thankful that I came to my sense about you. I don't even know how I thought you could possibly be someone I could be interested in."

Hermione's face twisted into a frown, "Well if you felt that way, why didn't you tell me sooner."

"I'm telling you know, aren't I?"

That stung. A lot. Although Hermione hadn't formed deeper attachments to the young Sirius Black, he reminded her of home aside from Remus. So by Sirius saying that she was basically a waste of time, hurt.

Blinking away the tears that suddenly began to form, Hermione abruptly got up and walked out of the common room. Before she actually left, however, Hermione turned around and said, "I hope you fall off your broom."

Normally, Hermione wouldn't wish that upon anyone, even Draco Malfoy, but in this case, Sirius Black was pushing all the wrong buttons.

As Hermione was walking in the hallways, she debated on going to the library or just... well actually there really wasn't another alternative, was there. Once Hermione arrived, she made a beeline towards the same section that she always went to.

The witch browsed through what she had already read in the incredibly small selection of books on time travel. She knew what she was looking for and she even knew where the book was located, but the spot was noticeably vacant.

Frowning, Hermione double-checked each shelf just in case the book might have been misplaced.

"Looking for this?"

Hermione turned around to find Regulus Black holding the very book that she had been looking for.

"Now, what is a girl like you doing in the library in this ungodly hour of the morning searching for a book on time travel?" Regulus smirked.

"Er-research," Hermione replied.

"Research?" Regulus queried, "For what class?"

"I-well-Why am I entitled to tell you what I'm doing?"

"Just curious," Regulus shrugged then offered the book to Hermione. "Here."

Hermione hesitantly grasped the book, "You weren't planning on reading it?"

"Me? This five-hundred pager?" Regulus scoffed.

"You're just like your brother," Hermione said while rolling her eyes.

There was an obvious silence coming from Regulus, so the witch looked up to see what was hindering him from speaking.

Regulus, red in the face, lashed out, "You know absolutely _nothing_ about me."

With that, he stormed off.

"Well that was fantastic," Hermione muttered to herself while getting up.

She walked towards the front desk and checked out the book that Regulus had handed to her and gazed at the clock. Her friends were probably down at the Great Hall eating breakfast. Hermione was unsure if she wanted to head downstairs to meet with them, but seeing as how she was hungry, skipping breakfast was out the question. So despite the argument she had with Sirius earlier in the morning, she went to the Great Hall.

Hermione could easily identify where her friends were located at, but hesitated from going any further.

"_I suppose I should just get this over with" _she thought and with a sharp intake of breath, Hermione headed towards them.

The witch noticed from afar that Sirius was sitting next to Remus. Sitting on the other side of Remus was her only choice.

"Hullo Hermione," James cheerily bellowed as she sat down beside Remus.

Hermione grinned in acknowledgement and greeted everyone at the table, well, other than Sirius. This intentional gesture was not ignored by the others.

"You know, Sirius here was actually up this morning," James stressed on his friend's name. "Sirius is also going to be playing this weekend."

"Great," Hermione said in a non-chalant manner while ripping her toast in two.

James winced at Hermione's reaction, but nevertheless continued to say, "Will you be attending said game?"

Before Hermione could answer, Sirius decided to cut in, "Oh Merlin no, she wouldn't want to waste her precious time on something as so insignificant as a Quidditch match."

"Sirius Black," Lily snapped, "you've been a git to Hermione the past few days. Will you quit it?"

The reprimanded teenager merely rolled his eyes in contempt but said no more.

Remus gave Hermione a cursory glance while he cautiously took out a piece of folded-up parchment from his trousers. Pressing the parchment into his palm, he reached out for Hermione's hand. Once Hermione felt Remus' hand upon hers, she looked at the owner alarmingly. A small smile was all Remus could muster.

He slipped his hand out of hers but carefully pressed the parchment against Hermione's small hand.

Hermione immediately glanced down and began to unfold what Remus had given her.

"_Meet me in front our next class in five minutes. –RL"_

And just as soon as he had given her the note, he announced that Professor McGonagall had asked to see him earlier and left.

Hermione quickly finished her toast and eggs but figured that if she left without a reasonable cause, she would surely be called out by her friends for secretly meeting with Remus. To avoid such occurrence, she began to rummage around in her book bag while muttering, "Where is that blasted book?"

"Books again?" Sirius huffed.

"None of your concern, Black," Hermione quickly replied, then with a heavy sigh, she turned to Lily and said, "I'm going to have to head back to the library. I think I've left my book on a table."

As soon as those words were said, Hermione literally flew out of the Great Hall in fear of being interrogated.

Breathing rather heavily, the witch approached Remus, who had has back turned from her. When she grew quiet as she stealthily moved towards him. Extending her arm, she reached to tap her index finger on his shoulder.

"Remus!" Hermione exclaimed.

The young wizard turned to face the witch with a grin, "Was that you're attempt at being scary."

"No," she smiled while shaking her head side-to-side, "I was going for shock."

"Well, between you and me, I think you're going to have to work on that more."

"So what is it that you wanted to say to me that couldn't be said in front of everyone?" Hermione asked.

She was sure it was nothing entirely out of the ordinary for her and Remus always had something to discuss. Besides, it wasn't as if she didn't mind Remus' company, she enjoyed having him around. She even was able to put aside her thoughts of Remus as her former professor.

"I'm... not quite sure how to word this," Remus timidly said.

"You're making me nervous now," Hermione laughed.

"Yea, multiply that feeling with a million and you've got what I'm feeling right now," he murmured.

"What is it?" she gently asked.

"I'm not sure if you haven't noticed, but..." Remus paused.

Hermione suddenly realized what Remus was about to confess to her. She couldn't believe that she was getting worried over something so trivial. What else would Remus say other than that he was a werewolf?

"I-"

"I know," she quickly said; Hermione figured that by admitting her knowledge, it would make Remus' confession easier.

"You do?" he asked. "I mean, I suppose you do, seeing as how I told you two months ago."

So the witch's assumptions were proven to be wrong.

"Regardless," Remus briefly closed his eyes and then said, "Hermione."

"Yes?" she tentatively answered, now unsure of what to expect, although she did have a hunch.

He reached for Hermione's hands once again but didn't pull away as quick as he did earlier.

"I've tried. I honestly have tried as hard as I possibly could, but seeing you everyday and knowing what could be has made it incredibly difficult."

Hermione gulped. This was definitely not the confession that she had expected from Remus.

"Hermione, I've been lying to myself this whole time. By being so close to you, I can't help but grow deeper feelings for you every time I'm around you. I'll understand if you cannot accept this, but one chance is all I ask for. And I promise I won't make you regret your decision either way."

"Remus..."

Can she take his offer? Sirius had said something similar a week ago, but things obviously had not gone well.

The witch heavily sighed, but couldn't deny that she hadn't developed similar feelings for Remus either, of course, not to an extreme extent.

Once she felt that she made the right decision, Hermione looked straight into Remus' amber eyes and replied with a small smile, "I'm counting on that promise."

"So it's a yes?" Remus' eyes suddenly grew bright.

Hermione bit her lower lip as if she was contemplating yet again. But then, she quickly stood on her toes and pressed her lips to Remus'.

Entirely surprised, his eyes were wide open in shock. Just as Hermione was about to pull away, Remus finally regained balance from his previously spinning conscience and before she could move away, Remus wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted one hand to her cheek and pulled her in for another kiss.

"I promise," Remus whispered then smiled before he gently caressed her lips.

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

Throughout breakfast, Regulus Black had still been annoyed at what Hermione had said earlier. Who was she to say that he was just like his brother? She knew absolutely nothing about him.

Once he finished, Regulus decided to walk around Hogwarts a few minutes before his class started. However, in the midst of his quiet amble, Regulus found the very person who he felt wronged him earlier this morning talking just around the corner.

He rolled his eyes, "Probably with my idiotic brother."

When he turned around the corner, Regulus noticed that it wasn't Sirius who Hermione was with, but one of his brother's irritating friends; he quickly identified that it was the quiet one. Before the two obviously engaged teenagers could see him, Regulus jumped back behind the corner.

"I thought her and Sirius were together," Regulus muttered, "So what the hell is she doing with that guy?"

For the first time in Regulus' life, he felt that he needed to speak to his brother on something other than familial problems. The reason? Simple. No woman should ever cross a Black in such manner.

* * *

**Figured I should mention that amorreal was mega-awesome and was able to identify a line that I snuck in from 'Pride & Prejudice.' I'm kind of disappointed that nobody else could find it though :( It's okay. I included one from 'Sense & Sensibility' this time, seeing as how I just finished the book a week ago, and figured... why not? Review when you think you've found it! **

**Oh, and by the way, in case you haven't noticed before, the titles for the chapters so far have been song titles that generally do relate to the story so have a listen. It's like a soundtrack :) [Warning: "Something Happened to My Heart" is a Korean song. I don't really like listening to Korean music even if I am, well, South Korean but this song is pretty b.a.]  
**

**Lastly, The Hangover was the bomb, but Public Enemies most definitely pwned. **

**Please read and review! I love reviews! Gives me more encouragement to post sooner! **

**-Susie  
**


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